Église Saint-Pierre de Bredons, Romanesque church in Albepierre-Bredons, France

The Église Saint-Pierre de Bredons is a Romanesque church built of basalt stone with a lauze stone-slab roof, standing on a dyke above the Alagnon valley and the town of Murat. Its square tower, pierced by small arched openings and capped with a pyramidal roof, rises beside a nave with tall buttresses and high arched windows.

The priory was founded in 1067 by Durand de Bredon, abbot of Moissac from 1048 to 1071, and the first church was consecrated in 1095. Bredons remained a priory of the Abbey of Moissac. The church was listed as a monument historique in 1840, and its facade and entire roof were under restoration from 2021 to 2025.

The church keeps the name of Saint Peter, to whom the priory was dedicated. Its medieval treasury was dispersed: a Romanesque walnut reliquary statue of the seated saint, hidden for centuries behind the main altar, was found there in 1954 by a local child and is now in the Haute-Auvergne Museum in Saint-Flour. In the night of 29 June 2002 about fifty objects were stolen, and only one has since been recovered, in Germany.

The building has been registered as a historical monument since 1840 and is currently undergoing restoration work on its framework and facades. Visitors should be aware that these works may affect access or views in certain areas.

The walnut reliquary statue of Saint Peter, carved in the first half of the 12th century, was found in 1954 by a local child hidden behind the main altar, where it had lain for several centuries. It is now kept in the Haute-Auvergne Museum in Saint-Flour, one of the few Romanesque wooden reliquary statues still well preserved in France.