The Cluniac priory of Saint-Germain-des-Fossés was a dependency of the Abbey of Mozac (Puy-de-Dôme), as recorded in a papal confirmation of rights granted to that abbey by Pope Alexander III in 1165. This is the earliest known written reference to the priory. Saint-Germain exercised the right of administering justice within its territory.
In 1791, following the Revolution, the priory was transferred to private ownership. Later, the church, dedicated to Notre-Dame, resumed its function as a parish, a role it had already fulfilled earlier. It was subsequently occupied by a community of Ursulines and, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, by the congregation of the Frères Saint-Jean, until 2023.
A Romanesque church of Carolingian origin is still preserved, though much altered. Major works were carried out in the eighteenth century, and the building was restored in the nineteenth century after suffering a fire. A fifteenth-century statue of the Virgin of Pity, once venerated there, was transferred to the new parish church of Notre-Dame, located in the town centre.
Mural painting with Saint Austromoine, Bishop of Clermont
- BEAUNIER, Dom (1912). Abbayes et prieurés de l'ancienne France. Vol. 5. Bourges. Abbaye de Ligugé
- BELOT, J.-B. (1908). Le pèlerinage de Notre-Dame de Saint-Germain-des-Fossés (diocèse de Moulins). La Chapelle-Montligeon: Montligeon
- CRAPLET, Bernard (1972). Auvergne romane. La nuit des temps, 2. Zodiaque
The priory stands on the southern side of the commune of Saint-Germain-des-Fossés, which lies to the north of Vichy