Basilique Notre Dame du Port

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The Basilica of Notre-Dame du Port is a Romanesque basilica, formerly a collegiate church, in the Port quarter of Clermont-Ferrand, between Place Delille and the cathedral. From the 10th century to the French Revolution it was served by a community of canons, regular until the 13th century, and thereafter secular.

The basilica is one of the five Romanesque churches in Auvergne known as the “greater” churches (majeures), the others being the church of Saint-Austremoine in Issoire, the Basilica of Notre-Dame of Orcival, the church of Saint-Nectaire, and the church of Saint-Saturnin.

Built of arkose, a sort of sandstone, the building has an almost perfect harmony supposedly resulting from the application of the ratio of the Golden Number.

The church is built on a Latin cross ground plan with a nave of six bays between two low side aisles with simple vaults. There is a transept with a semi-circular chapel on each arm, and a quire surrounded by an ambulatory from which open four radiating chapel, none of them on the main axis, thus forming a chevet, which with its fine mosaics is a notable example of the Romanesque art of Auvergne. The capitals, which are among the finest in Auvergne, principally depict scenes from the Bible, but also some from the Psychomachia of Prudentius.