Human head flanked by fatal creature of European legend, a basilisk, often depicted in medieval bestiaries as a serpent-tailed bird. Sculpted in marble on Romanesque capital in the cloister added in the late 1200s to the abbey church of St Michael, or église abbatiale St-Michel, at Saint-Génis-des Fontaines, Pyrénées-Orientales, Occitanie, France.
Saint-Génis-des Fontaines, Pyrénées-Orientales, Occitanie, France: basilisk (right) and human head sculpted in marble on a Romanesque capital in the cloister attached to the abbey church of St Michael, or église abbatiale St-Michel. The abbey church of St Michael was built circa 778 - 780, at the same time as the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Génis-des Fontaines. The church was destroyed by an attack of the Normans circa 855 - 856, rebuilt in the late 1000s and 1100s and consecrated in 1127. A richly sculpted Romanesque marble cloister was added in the late 1200s. In 1846, the abbey church re-opened as the parish church of the village. The Abbey of Saint-Génis-des Fontaines was founded by a “pious man” called Sentimir in about 780 AD, during the reign of Charlemagne (Charles the Great). It was dedicated to Génis, a martyr of Arles who died in 303. The abbey, along with its church, was destroyed by the Normans in the mid-800s, but was then rebuilt and further developed. In Hellenic and Roman legend, the basilisk is a legendary snake-like reptile with fatal breath and deadly to those who look into its eyes. The creature was later depicted in medieval bestiaries as a serpent-tailed bird. It was said to have been generated from an egg laid by a cockerel or rooster and hatched by a serpent.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Saint-Génis-des Fontaines, Pyrénées-Orientales, Occitanie, France
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1200s, abbatiale, abbey, ad, ages, architecture, art, bared, basilic, basilisk, beast, benedictine, bestiary, bird-, capital, carved, carving, chapiter, christian, christianity, church, cloister, column, , decoration, decorative, europe, european, face, fontaines, france, french, head, kerr, le, legendary, marble, mediaeval, medieval, michael, middle, monastery, monastic, monster, occitanie, ornamental, ornamented, pier, pillar, pyréées-orientales, religious, romanesque, saint-énis-des, sculpted, sculpture, serpent-tailed, st, st-michel, teeth, terence, top, église
