Samson Keystone - Cadouin Cloister

3D Model

One finds many fine sculptures in the cloister of the abbaye of Cadouin in Dordogne. One of the most surprising is this Keystone representing Samson, the biblical hero, whose great strenght was in his long hair. One day his wife Delilah discovered his secret and asked her servant to cut his hair during his sleep so that he would lose his strenght.

Imagine this keystone 3.5 meters high at the center of a three arch vault, amid many biblical sculpted scenes. It’s really surpising.

I had to climb on a long ladder to capture this scene, and it was just about long enough