Vézelay is a Benedictine and Cluniac abbey, refounded in the 9th century under Badilo, who affiliated it with Cluny. The site was once a late Roman villa. A new abbey church was begun and dedicated on April 21, 1104, and Pope Innocent II inaugurated the extended narthex in 1132. The article gives construction as 1120 to 1150, which the 1104 date does not reconcile.
The nave burned in 1165 and was rebuilt in its present form. The article describes a complex program of imagery in sculpted capitals and portals, with the central tympanum treated in detail, but gives no capital counts or dimensions. It names no architect.
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc restored the church in stages between 1840 and 1861. The article credits him with the flying buttresses that support the nave, and says his team replaced much weathered and vandalized sculpture. UNESCO inscribed Vézelay, Church and Hill in 1979.
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