Note 280 — Chapter IX · The Gothic Art of Burgundy[267]

The abbey of St. Andoche, Saulieu, was named for a companion of St. Benignus, a Greek missionary sent to evangelize Gaul, perhaps by St. Polycarp of Smyrna. The church was rebuilt early in the XII century, and of that period is the nave whose capitals present sculpture of different epochs: the barbaric earlier grotesques censured by St. Bernard, then a few acanthus leaves and medallions, and, finally, naturalistic work. Calixtus II dedicated Saulieu’s abbey church in 1119. In 1339 the English sacked the choir and transept, which were rebuilt in 1704. That true son of Burgundy, Vauban, the celebrated engineer of Louis XIV, was born in a château near Saulieu in 1633: “The most honest man of his century, the simplest, truest, and bravest,” according to St. Simon. He covered France with defenses whose worth was proved in 1914. One can comprehend qualities in a region’s architecture by a knowledge of regional characters. Congrès Archéologique, 1907, p. 103, Pierre de Truchis, on Saulieu. The architect Soufflot, of M. Lefèvre-Pontalis’ family, was a Burgundian.