The story of this place
Saint-Émilion grew up around the 8th-century hermitage of a monk named Émilion, on the limestone slopes of Bordeaux wine country. Between the 9th and 12th centuries, monks carved directly into the rock beneath the town an astonishing monolithic church—the largest underground church in Europe, its nave, pillars and vaults hewn entirely from the living stone, its 68-metre bell tower rising from the village above. In 1199 King John of England granted the town's winegrowers the self-governing 'Jurade', a wine brotherhood that still ceremonially proclaims the vintage each year. Ringed by some of the world's most prestigious vineyards, the whole jurisdiction of Saint-Émilion is a UNESCO World Heritage Site—the first wine region so honoured.