Escolives-Sainte-Camille | Auxerre and Auxerrois Tourist Office

From the origin of the name to the Templars

The commune’s name derives from the Latin Scoliva, which referred to the Gallo-Roman thermal spa that was present on the village’s lands from the 1st to the 5th century AD. In 596, the bishop Saint Aunaire d’Auxerre included the name Ecolives in the thirty main parishes of the Auxerre diocese. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the village’s name changed to Escolives-Sainte-Camille. Indeed, in December 1958, the commune’s name was changed to pay homage to Sainte Camille, the bearer of Saint Germain’s stretcher, who died in Escolives in 448 on her way from Ravenna to Auxerre.

At the dawn of the 11th century, the seigneury of Escolives was held by the counts of Auxerre and Nevers, then of Joigny. The land was used for farming and viticulture, and yielded very good returns. In the 12th century, the Knights Templar moved in and established a powerful commandery called Commanderie du Saulce (created around 1130 and taken over by the Maltese in 1308). It was from Escolives that the Knights Templar would rule over all the houses of the Order in the Auxerre region: Auxerre, Vallan, Champs, Monéteau, Saint-Bris… The monk-soldiers would enjoy substantial revenues thanks to the fertility of the land and the ease of road and river transport. They were influential landowners, owning cereal-growing land, controlling water-powered mills and, of course, vineyards and cellars all over Auxerre.

Saint Camille

Ecolives was an important parish in the 6th century, thanks in part to the popularity of its church housing the relics of Saint Camille. Indeed, pilgrimages to the church were regular in the Middle Ages, as Saint Camille’s tomb was classified as an original Christian shrine. Camille died on the village site in the 5th century.

She was one of the five girls who followed the body of Saint Germain from Ravenna to Auxerre in 448. The names of the five women who died en route can be found in the surnames of the villages where death struck them: Pallade, Magnance, Camille, Procaire and Maxime.

The original church building at Escolives dates back to the 5th century and was an oratory dedicated to Saint Camille. This oratory is mentioned by the bishops of Auxerre as early as the early 6th century. In the 12th century, under the episcopacy of Bishop Alain d’Auxerre, the oratory was transformed into a Romanesque church. The church was dedicated to the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, particularly celebrated in medieval liturgy. The church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul remains directly associated with the memory of Saint Camille. Unfortunately, the Protestants burned Camille’s holy relics in 1567 and destroyed the tomb. At the end of the 16th century, a new two-level crypt was built to house the remaining relics and the remains of the local Bellombre lords.

Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul church

The church has a very classical 12th-century plan. The plan features a single nave preceded by a western porch and ending in a semi-circular choir. The single-bay nave has six Romanesque bays. The church’s choir bays are cross-vaulted. The choir is extended to the east by a cul-de-four apse. Sculpture in the church is minimalist, reduced to the vegetated capitals in the nave.

The small Romanesque church at Escolives is famous for several things: its crypt, its narthex and its beautiful octagonal red-brick bell tower. The church tower rises above the last bay of the nave. Until 1929, the spire was made of oak shingles. The steeple was struck by lightning in 1930 and rebuilt in 1935 using red bricks made from local clay. This twentieth-century eight-sided spire is covered in clay bricks and caps a unique octagonal bell tower. Work to stabilize and consolidate the spire began in spring 2024 and was completed in April 2025. The extensive renovation work included a complete overhaul of the belfry and the installation of sound baffles.

Access to the single nave of the Escolives church is via a magnificent 12th-century Romanesque porch with openwork under a roof frame. This porch, also known as the Narthex, is surmounted by a four-lobed rose featuring a bas-relief sculpture of the Paschal Lamb. On either side of the portal, two stone corbels feature sculptures of an Atlantean and a Griffin. The porch-narthex of the Saint Pierre et Saint Paul church in Escolives is one of the finest in the region. This type of limestone porch is typical of the Burgundian Romanesque period.

The crypt

Beneath the church’s choir lies another architectural treasure that makes this little Burgundian church unique. In the nave just before the choir, a small hidden staircase leads down into a sumptuous two-level Romanesque crypt. This double crypt had a dual function when it was originally built: firstly, to compensate for the steep slope of the site, and secondly, to house the tomb of Saint Camille. The upper level of the Romanesque crypt is a chapel with three naves, each with three bays. The hooked capitals are transitional Romanesque. The square space of this crypt level is rib-vaulted over round arches. The crypt vault is supported by four massive central columns. Since the 5th century, this sacred space has housed the reliquary of Saint Camille. The lower level of the crypt is now sealed. It is a 16th-century private seigneurial vault, built to house the sarcophagi of the lords of Château de Bellombre. The de Chastellux family had tombs in the crypt as early as 1656. The Chaponnel family used the crypt from 1670, while the d’Annoux family was the last seigniorial family to own Château de Bellombre. The lords of Annoux were buried in the crypt as early as 1870.

©Lhypocauste Systeme De Chauffage Utilise Pour Chauffer Les Thermes Office De Tourisme De Lauxerrois

The archaeological site of Escolives Sainte-Camille

Escolives stands on a limestone plateau teeming with underground springs, including the “Creusot” spring, which bears traces of Neolithic life as far back as 4500 BC. Traces of Celtic farms and Gaulish agricultural occupation can be found around the Villa Scoliva site. The soil and subsoil are very fertile in the Yonne valley.

The great discovery of the Villa Scoliva archaeological site was not made until 1955. Nineteenth-century archaeological societies suspected the existence of Roman farms along the via Agrippa at Escolives. No excavations were undertaken on the present site until the 20th century. In 1955, while digging up a walnut tree in a field at a place called Grippe Soleil, a farmer discovered Merovingian funerary sarcophagi from the 6th and 8th centuries in the roots of the tree. Raymond Kapps, a professor of ancient literature and archaeologist from Auxerre, was asked to authenticate the carved stones. Kapps was initially assisted by prehistorian André Leroi-Gourhan, famous for his excavation of the caves at Arcy-sur-Cure. Together, Raymond and André unearthed and dated the Escolives sarcophagi. As they unearthed the steles, they discovered that the sarcophagi had been installed on top of earlier Gallo-Roman ruins.Their successor in 1979, Daniel Prost, officially excavated the Villa Scoliva site and dated it to between the 1st and 4th centuries.

The Villae

The Romanization of Gaul led to the creation of numerous agricultural estates called Villae, run by wealthy families. Villa Scoliva was a Domus occupied throughout the Gallo-Roman period between the end of the 1st century BC and the end of the 5th century AD. The villa’s Roman thermal baths date back to the 1st century AD. The complex expanded over the centuries, becoming a major Roman agricultural villa with baths and outbuildings.

The entire site has yet to be excavated. Today we know that it consisted of residences connected to a spring and a sacred sanctuary. There was also a spa complex and several agricultural buildings. The whole was structured by alleys and courtyards that formed a small, self-contained village. The site covered an area of 4,000m2.

The site can be visited from April to October, so book your visit now!

Archeological site

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Vines in Escolives

Vines arrived in the Auxerrois region with the Romans, but were already present as a climbing plant in Celtic times. During the medieval period, the local abbeys (Pontigny, St Germain) and the bishopric of Auxerre took over the wine monopoly. The Cistercians of Pontigny established themselves in Chablis, while the Benedictines of Auxerre dealt with the wine-growing seigneuries of Coulanges, Escolives and Saint Bris. The Knights Templar and the Maltese completed the list of winegrowing lords from the 12th century onwards.

Escolives has always been linked to the wine-growing seigneury of Coulages-la-Vineuse, and produced wine in large quantities in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. Escolives’ winemaking tradition continues today at the Petit Château d’Escolives, a 17th-century fortified wine farm. Domaine Borgnat owns 18 hectares and produces the Coulanges appellation, mainly Pinot Noir, but the other two colors are also grown.

The old 17th-century building houses exceptional underground vaulted cellars measuring 700 square meters. The cellars are laid out in a U-shape, 35 meters long and 4 meters high. The 2 levels of cellars date from the 12th to the 17th centuries and boast a magnificent underground network.

Domaine Borgnat

The Pierre Merlier Museum

The Musée Pierre Merlier, housed in the former Moulin du Saulce in Escolives-Sainte-Camille, invites you to discover the singular universe of the Burgundy artist (1931-2017) through over 300 wooden sculptures – oak, lime, elm, cherry… Each work, with its sometimes offbeat shapes, blends irony, poetry and a marked expressive inventiveness, where roots become heads and trunks come to life. The theatrical staging of this ensemble, on the banks of the Canal du Nivernais, creates an immersive and emotional experience, where the eye is both amused and touched. Since 2023, an artothèque has also been open: you can borrow a work to admire at home, before returning it – a fun way to extend the visit at home.