Musée du Velay

Le Puy-en-Velay is one of the most dramatic towns in France, set in a volcanic basin in the Haute-Loire where steep rock needles rise out of the streets. The town is a Ville d'art et d'histoire and the traditional starting point of the Via Podiensis, the French route to Santiago de Compostela. The Musée du Velay is a regional museum, dating from the late nineteenth century, devoted to the history and culture of the Velay, the old province around the town.

The cathedral, Notre-Dame du Puy, is the main monument, and the museum makes more sense once you have seen it. Its construction began in the twelfth century and it stands at the top of a steep staircase, with a facade of banded stone in black, white and red that shows influences from Byzantine and Moorish architecture, brought by pilgrims and traders. The cathedral holds a Black Madonna, a famous object of devotion, and the original medieval statue was destroyed during the Revolution, so the figure seen today is a later copy. In 951 Bishop Gotescalc made the pilgrimage from Le Puy to Santiago, and this journey is considered to have begun the tradition of the route that still leaves from the cathedral steps.

Other landmarks stand out of the town like exclamation marks. The Chapelle Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe sits on a needle of volcanic rock about 80 metres high, reached by a staircase of more than 250 steps, and its tenth-century origins make it one of the most unusual chapels in France. On another rock, the Rocher Corneille, a giant statue of the Virgin, Notre-Dame de France, overlooks the old town, and was cast in 1860 from cannons captured at Sevastopol. The Musée Crozatier, in the Jardin Henri-Vinay, is the town's main museum of fine arts and local history.

Le Puy is also known for its lace, a craft that gave work to thousands of women in the countryside and is still taught, and for its green lentils, which have a protected designation, and for the verveine liqueur of the Velay. These products help to give the region its identity.

The museum suits those who want to look beyond the cathedral at the long history of the region, and walkers beginning the pilgrim route. Check the opening times before you visit. Combine it with the Église Saint-Laurent and the old streets of the town, and with excursions into the volcanic landscapes around.