The village of Carennac grew up around a clunian priory founded in the middle of the 11th-century. This beautiful church and cloister are at the centre of the village.
The carving (tympanum) above the entrance to the church is particularly remarkable and depicts Christ in Majesty surrounded by the four Evangelists and the apostles. There are traces of polychrome paint on this sculpted piece that show it was once brilliantly coloured. It was a later edition having been created in the 12th-century along with the addition of the porch.
This wonderful church houses thirty carved capitals and has a square Romanesque bell tower that rises above the transept. Inside the church you will find a classic Benedictine abbey with a barrel-vaulted nave and two side aisles leading to the apse. Many renovations took place in the 16th-century and included the addition of smaller chapels on either side of the altar and on the north side of the aisle.
The adjoining Gothic cloister is well preserved and although simple, offers a calm and tranquil setting. You will also find a beautiful 'mise au tombeau' - tomb with sculpture decoration.
