Priory of Saint-Désiré

At the site of Desideratus’s burial, in the mid-11th century, Ebbes de Déols and Archambaud de Bourbon —brother of Aymon, bishop of Bourges— founded a priory that they placed under the jurisdiction of the monastery of Sacra di San Michele (San Michele della Chiusa), to the west of Turin. Between 1066 and 1091, the abbot Benedict of La Chiusa had the crypt arranged where the saint’s tomb was kept and built a new church.

The church, of Romanesque origin, survives from the former establishment. It has three naves with a transept and dates from the 12th century. The chancel rises above a crypt, the oldest part of the complex, probably from the time of its foundation. The chevet, probably built around 1100, consists of five apses: the main one is as wide as the central nave; the next two correspond to the side aisles, and the smallest open at the ends of the transept. The building was listed as a historic monument in 1864. During restoration work carried out in the 19th century, the remains of Romanesque mural painting it still preserved —dated 1118— were lost.