La Chaise-Dieu occupies a 1082 m butte which dominates a plain between the mounts of Livradois and Velay.

La Chaise-Dieu means "the Seat of God" in French (from the Occitan "Chasa Dieu") and is a reference to the Benedictine abbey[3] which was founded on the site in 1043 by Robert de Turlande, a kinsman of Gerald of Aurillac and canon of Saint Julian's church at Brioude, nearby.

Pope Clement VI began his vocation as a monk at Chaise Dieu and was the patron of the vast abbey church (built 1344–1350), a suitable setting for his tomb.

The partners of the figures are skeletons and the parade strictly follows precedence of contemporary society, with Adam and Eve preceding all: the pope then the emperor, the legate, the prince, the cardinal, the High Constable, the patriarch, the knight, then the abbot, the townsman, the merchant, the lady, ending with the lawyer, the minstrel, the clerk, the ploughman, the monk, the innocent child and the pilgrim.

French pianist Georges Cziffra started an annual festival of sacred music in La Chaise-Dieu in 1966.