Now anyone doing a relaxing touring holiday in Burgundy would give Vezelay a few hours. Michelin gives it 2*. The walk up to the abbey and ramparts through the main street of old houses is very pleasant. No doubt also someone with religious convictions could find the religious significance of the place moving. But a WHS?? I think not.

This hill town in Burgundy contains the 12th century Benedictine abbey church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine which some consider “one of the most important surviving monuments of architecture and sculpture of the Romanesque period”. By the 16th century it was already on ruins and was partially razed during the French Revolution. The building you see is that which was reconstructed in the mid 19th century though much of the decoration appears to be considered original.

France has 28 WHS sites and 8 of these are entirely or mainly of religious buildings (including 4 cathedrals) There are a further 3 cities (Strasburg, Ile de France, and Lyons) which include yet more cathedrals. And there are another 4 religious buildings including 3 more cathedrals within its 38 entries on the Tentative list! France also has a site called “Routes of Santiago de Compostela” – all 3 of whose starting points (Bourges, Mont St Michel and Vézelay) are also WHS in their own rights and Vezelay has 2 buildings, including its Abbey, inscribed on the list of buildings for this site too (I might add that UK is not immune from this compulsion to nominate Religious buildings but has so far kept this to 3 Cathedrals and 1 ruined abbey with only 1 further ruin on its Tentative list. Italy, Spain and Germany might run France close but would not, I think, catch it!).

In my view this is overkill. If every Christian building in Europe which could be considered “significant” by the experts for its architecture and/or religious/historical importance were to be nominated then lots of countries could finish up with lists even longer than that of France! Choosing the best might just about be acceptable for a small country with few other potential sites but France seems hell bent on“flooding the market”! With the best will in the world Vézelay is a second ranking site. It architectural credentials are limited and somewhat specialised. Moreover its religious credentials are covered by another site. I see little “uniqueness” in yet another pilgrimage abbey especially a heavily reconstructed one.

Still you have got to give the good burghers of Vezelay top marks for playing the UNESCO game to the full. To get 2 listings for 1 place shows that they have been doing a wonderful job for their tourist industry! They got in very early in 1979 and, when the Compostela route was added in 1998, managed to keep their site separate when really it should have been subsumed within the greater.