"Built on a volcanic peak, the rock of Aiguilhe, 82 meters high, the church dedicated to Saint Michael is accessible by a staircase of 268 steps.
Architecture
The construction is done in two stages, initial construction of a pre-Romanesque oratory consecrated in 961 followed by the construction of a chapel at the end of the 12th century made necessary by the influx of pilgrims.
The 10th century aulic oratory
The initial building founded by Truannus is an oratory with a square centered plan of Roman inspiration covered with a dome flanked by three apsidioles vaulted in cul-de-four forming a cross like the primitive state of the Carolingian oratory of Germigny- des-Pres. The mural paintings with which it is adorned date from its construction, making it a rare set of pre-Romanesque paintings. The south apse was destroyed for the construction of the chapel in the 12th century.
The 12th century pilgrimage chapel
The construction of this chapel on an original plan adapts completely in its format, its plan and its orientation to the shape of the platform. Despite the resemblance, there is no ambulatory but a nave built in the extension and in the place of the west apse surrounded by a groined vaulted gallery which leads after a few steps under a front gallery and a gallery at the entrance and leads after two bays to the forecourt and the sculpted and polychrome facade facing south-east which makes the monument famous. If the oratory is oriented, the chapel is offset northwest-southeast.
Sets
The polychromy of the stone mosaic characteristic of Auvergne Romanesque art as in the cathedral of Le Puy or on the apse of the Church of Saint-Austremoine in Issoire, the bas-relief sculptures of the pediment, the sculptures of the capitals can only be understood as an inseparable program from the polychrome paintings that completely covered the interior and the pediment. Gaps and past centuries deprive us of a clear understanding of certain elements of this program.
Facade
The door is flanked by two columns, each surmounted by a capital sculpted with acanthus leaves and an anthropomorphic or zoomorphic motif. It is surmounted by a sculpted lintel decorated with two confronting sirens, which supports a tympanum bordered by a frieze of foliage. On this archivolt rests the trefoil arch, decorated with foliage and anthropomorphic motifs. The interior of the lobes is decorated with carved scenes, including the paschal lamb and groups of elders evoking the Apocalypse. The absence of motifs in the tympanum raised the hypothesis of a stucco decoration, an element of which was found during excavations.
Above the arch takes place a decoration of polychrome stone mosaics surmounted by arcades under which is represented Christ surrounded by Saint John, the Virgin, the Archangel Michael and Saint Peter.
Murals and capitals
The thirty-two Romanesque capitals of the chapel are heterogeneous, some bear palmettes or plant motifs, others are more ornate; they bear traces of polychromy, they were systematically painted, for some the sculpture is unfinished which did not appear once painted. Three campaigns of paintings are identified: a first Romanesque decoration in the choir, the primitive chapel, a second Romanesque decoration in what is called the front gallery and the gallery, the cycle of the Magi on the vault of the nave and the decor of the Gothic period gallery.
Themes of iconography
The iconography of the portal is mentioned above, one of the two capitals evokes a deacon, the garland of foliage of the archivolt is spat out of the mouths of two heads evoking speech. The two sirens in the lintel, identical 19th century copies of the earlier lintel, raise questions about another more benevolent interpretation of the sirens because of the cloth with which they cover their hair.
The decoration of the gallery has almost completely disappeared, that of the nave has been identified as a cycle of three scenes from the Magi, in the choir the tetramorph, the archangel and the celestial Jerusalem evoking the last judgment are recognizable, The front tribune and tribune are decorated with geometric patterns, birds and an adoration of the Virgin."