Conques is named after the Latin word for shell (‘Concha’) because the site is curled up like a conch shell. In the late 8th-century, Dado the hermit settled here, choosing the sacred spot for its mystical location within a ring of cliffs, and abundant natural spring (the Fontaine du Plô). Gradually, a small monastic community was formed, which later adopted the Rule of Saint Benedict. The monks of Conques stole the relics of the Christian martyr Saint Fides (‘faith’ in Latin) from Agen and put them in their church, which became known as Sainte-Foy Church. The abbey swiftly became a key staging post of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim’s trail. Donations flooded in and the humble Sainte-Foy Church swelled into a powerful abbey, at the head of a monastic empire spanning Bamberg in Germany to Santa Fé in northern Spain. In 1998, the abbey church and pilgrim’s bridge over the Dourdou were declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

See the glittering collection of gold in Sainte-Foy Church (jewel-encrusted golden Majesty of Saint Fides reliquary-statue, Romanesque Bego’s Lantern and Processional Cross).

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