The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France, was a popular stop for pilgrims traveling the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, in what is now Spain.

The main draw for medieval pilgrims at Conques were the remains of Sainte-Foy, a young woman martyred during the fourth century.

[3] The original monastery building at Conques was an eighth-century oratory built by monks fleeing the Saracens in Spain.

[2] The original chapel was destroyed in the eleventh century in order to facilitate the creation of a much larger church[4] as the arrival of the relics of Sainte-Foy caused the pilgrimage route to shift from Agen to Conques.

[4] The third phase of construction, which was completed early in the twelfth-century, was inspired by the churches of Toulouse and Santiago de Compostela.

The piers of the naves are huge stone blocks laid horizontally and covered with either four half-columns or four pilasters.

The interior of the church is 20.70 meters tall with the sense of verticality being intensified by the repeating pattern of half-columns and pilasters approaching the high altar.

The capitals are decorated with a variety of motifs including palm leaves, symbols, biblical monsters and scenes from the life of Sainte-Foy.

The windows in the clerestory and the light from the ambulatory and radiating chapels focus directly onto the high altar.

[6] The original windows have long since vanished and after WWII the spaces were filled with colourful figurative glass designs.

He created the windows from reconstituted crushed white glass in order to keep the purity and the power of the bay architecture.

Pierre Soulages' stained-glass windows are nowadays an integral element of Conques architecture, history and its collective memory "in accordance with the function of this architecture and the emotion felt in this space, agreeing with its purpose of contemplation, meditation and prayer"[9] The ambulatory allowed pilgrims to glimpse into the sanctuary space through a metal grill.

The liberated pilgrims would then immediately travel to Conques and dedicate their former chains to Sainte-Foy relaying their tale to all who would listen.

The tortures of Hell are vividly depicted including poachers being roasted by the very rabbit they poached from the monastery.

Sainte-Foy is shown on the lower left kneeling in prayer and being touched by the outstretched hand of God.

Particularly interesting are carvings of the "curieux" (the curious ones), forerunners of the World War II-era cartoon image known as Kilroy, who peek over the edges of the tympanum.

[6] There is no one distinct, credited artist for this reliquary because it is a dynamic work of art that changed with the incoming donations to the church over time.

[13] The relics themselves were stolen from the nearby town of Agen by the monks of Conques in what was commonly called a furtum sacrum, or holy robbery.

[14] In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the relics and treasures were removed by local residents and hidden nearby, while the sanctuary was converted to a "Temple of Reason."

Upon visiting Conques in 1833, the author and antiquary Prosper Mérimée, then France's Inspector of Historical Monuments found the abbey beyond repair, but inspired thorough restorations of the church.