Located at the heart of Livradois-Forez, 30 kilometres east of Lavaudieu in Haute-Loire, the old Benedictine abbey of La Chaise-Dieu, founded in the 11th century by Canon Robert de Turlande, is nowadays a major religious site in Auvergne.
In the Languedoc Gothic style, its imposing and magnificent 14th-century abbey church is remarkable, with its 17th-century pipe organ, Flamboyant Gothic rood screen and 144 carved oak stalls arranged around the tomb of Pope Clement VI. Not to be missed is the superb 15th-century fresco of the Danse Macabre, covering three panels and four pillars. It shows cadavers leading characters from medieval society to their deaths, be they authority figures, bourgeois or members of the lower classes.
Originally located in the monks' choir of the abbey church, the famous Flemish tapestries are now on display in the old Chapel of Our Lady of the College of La Chaise-Dieu. These fourteen superb tapestries from the early 16th century depict scenes from the life of Christ.
Also worth seeing is the beautiful Gothic cloister adjoining the abbey church, of which two galleries remain.
Renowned for its exceptional acoustics, the Abbey Church of St. Robert hosts the famous La Chaise-Dieu music festival at the end of August every year, a major event devoted to sacred and symphonic music.