Brioude

Brioude grew around the shrine of Saint Julian, whose tomb drew pilgrims to the upper Allier valley. The great church was served by a chapter of canons that purchased the counts of Auvergne's feudal rights over the town in 1223. The canons exercised lordship as well as religious duties, and by the sixteenth century they styled themselves counts of Brioude. Their church and houses gave the town a distinctive ecclesiastical character.