Long before the arrival of Christianity, a cult of sources was seemingly practiced in the region of today Besse en Chandesse. A pagan temple was dedicated to the divinity of the nearby sources of the Couze and Clamouze rivers. Evangelised in the 3rd century, Auvergne gradually turned away from ancient cults and, in the medieval period, statues of the Virgin Mary started to ornate the gables of certain buildings in Besse, such as the one visible at the corner of the Rue Notre-Dame and the Rue de la Boucherie (Butcher’s street).