One cannot speak of AURIAC and its church without speaking of the abbey of VALETTE.

This Cistercian monastery was hidden in a small valley along the DORDOGNE ("Cisterciennes in valle", said an old adage).

It was founded by a disciple of Saint Etienne d'Aubaine, Bego de Scorais, who after having tried to settle in the territory of the parish of TOURNIAC (Cantal), too poor to support his colony, came in 1145 to the small valley (valeta), in the parish of AURIAC.

The abbey then received many covetous donations from AUVERGNE in particular.

Around 1574, the incendiary Protestants ransacked VALETTE which took a long time to recover from this destruction.

In 1795, the last abbot left VALETTE driven out by the revolution. It was at this time that the abbey crosier was transported to the parish church of AURIAC.

Jean-Auguste PENIERES, conventional and regicide, then established a glassworks in VALETTE which he abandoned for exile in 1816.

In 1957, the abbey was engulfed by the waters of the CHASTANG dam.

Some of you were able to admire some remains during the emptying in the summer of 1984.

All that remains of the old cloister is a Romanesque door saved before the immersion of the building and rebuilt in the enclosure of the monument to the dead of AURIAC as well as an old wooden staircase visible in a Tullist restaurant: LA TOQUE BLANCHE.

Note: the parish of AURIAC is placed under the patronage of Saints COME and DAMIEN.

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INVENTORIES OF FURNITURE OBJECTS OF THE CHURCH DRAWN UP ON MAY 11, 1790 BY THE MUNICIPAL OFFICERS OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF AURIAC IN THE PRESENCE OF DOM XAVIER MAYROT PRIOR OF THE ABBEY

 

And at the moment we transported ourselves assisted by the said religious lords in the sacristy and church of the said monastery and we noticed that there were at the high altar only six candlesticks and a Christ of wood and silver, and at the two chapels six small candlesticks in yellow copper and four others in gilded wood, and in the sacristy there are two chalices, a monstrance, a small ciborium, a reliquary and a small silver box with holy oils.

Moreover, the said religious lords told us that there was in the tabernacle a ciborium for the reserve of the holy species in vermeil, a small copper cross for the processions, a censer with its shuttle, a small stoup, a fountain with its basin , all in copper, five almost new chasubles, one in fine rage braid and the other chiselled silver or gold braid, plus two red chasubles, one in embossed camelot, three others black and common with two dalmatics, other two purple chasubles in embossed camelot, a chasuble with flowers in green wool, all the said chasubles with their stole and maniple and veil, plus a veil for the Blessed Sacrament, twelve albs, one with large lace and one with small, twelve corporals, twenty friends, eight cords, eight tablecloths, not including the three which are on the altars, forty eight purificators, seventeen washbasins, all half worn, three missals and the books necessary for the divine offices (…).