Vézelay Abbey (now known as Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine) was a Benedictine and Cluniac monastery in Vézelay in the Yonne department in northern Burgundy, France. The Benedictine abbey church of Ste-Marie-Madeleine (or Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene), is one of the outstanding masterpieces of Burgundian Romanesque art and architecture. The tympanum of the main portal to the presentation of the Last Judgment, made by the sculptor Pascal, under the supervision of the architect Viollet-le-Duc. In the center, Christ in mandorla dominated the picture, with wide-spread arms. On his left Archangel Michael weighing souls, a horrible devil at his side. The convicts, mostly naked, go to hell and disappear into the maw of a monstrous Leviathan. At the right hand of Christ are Mary and Peter with keys and going to elect the Heavenly Jerusalem. Around Christ the evangelists depicted in the form of their symbol animals placed Luke and Matthew, Mark and John down. The lintel, under the tympanum, showing episodes from the life of Jesus Christ. This house of god for pilgrims is a starting point of the pilgrimage to Santiago or Saint James Way: to the grave,of the apostle James the Greater in the Spanish city Santiago de Compostela.
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