Canalblog
Editer l'article Suivre ce blog Administration + Créer mon blog
Publicité
Sacred places
Sacred places
Sacred places
Derniers commentaires
11 juin 2007

Notre-Dame the brown one of Aleyrac

dr_me_provencale_644aClassified Historic building since 1905, the ruins of the church Notre-Dame the Brown one just below draw up the collar of Aleyrac, between la Bégude-of-Mazenc and Salles-sous-Bois, close to the important medieval way of passage of Crest towards Provence, in Western limit of the diocese of Die.














dr_me_provencale_597aThis abbey of  bénédictines nuns depend of the Barbe island of Lyon is known since 1105 but, after one period of expansion in XIIth century, it undergoes the disorders of the end of XIVth century and in 1427, the nuns were taken refuge in Valréas. In 1449, the abbot of the Barbe island links his goods with those of the collegial Holy-Cross with Montélimar and in 1528, the seigniory passes definitively between laic hands. It is sold into 1550 in Adhémar of Grignan.












dr_me_provencale_620aPrimitive monastery, remains only the church which was unfortunately stripped of most of the stones of its facing external at last century. It is probable that the monastic buildings rose downstream, with the site of the cemetery, bus of the traces of anchoring of roof still remain on the southern wall.






















dr_me_provencale_599aThe western frontage that one discovers while arriving appears largely openwork above the vacuum: three windows with double splaying, a pinnacle with two arcades which surmounts the pinion, and a now useless door.
















dr_me_provencale_635aThis one indeed, opens above water: outside the brook of Aleyrac runs, inside a miraculous source. A bridge was to make it possible to join opposite bank.

The crowned source is exactly in the endoit where the Jordan in the religious buildings is. It is one of the rare times where one can note it in visu…
















dr_me_provencale_641Traces of anchoring of a frame and a roof above the door attest the existence, at one unspecified time, of a porch, perhaps of wood. Inside, a floor covered a room today with open sky where runs a miraculous source. The pilgrims sought there the cure of the headaches and the skin diseases.
dr_me_provencale_607a













dr_me_provencale_623

dr_me_provencale_614

dr_me_provencale_613a

















dr_me_provencale_605aThe patina of time gave a gray color, almost uniform, with the hardcores of the made limestone walls and with the archstones of the top of the vaults cut in the tuff. The perfection of the size of the stones did not prevent the realization of a coating with false red joints on white zone, hardly visible today. A red cross of dedication is still guessed on the walls of the apse.














dr_me_provencale_604aThe nave counts three spans of broad blind arcades, blind in north but bored of a window with double splaying in the south. A transept opens towards a fourth blind arcade and each brace gives on small a absidiole arched in half dome and lit by an axial window. A span of chorus precedes the pentagonal apse of which each of the three median sides is bored of a window with double splaying now sealed.



















dr_me_provencale_612aThe vault of the nave in cradle was very slightly broken as one can observe it with height of the first span in the west.  It was supported by arcs beams resting on pilasters. Only decoration is that of the profiled cornice of a moulding plane which underlines the birth of the vault, that of the beams and the side blind arcades which give rythm to the walls.













dr_me_provencale_637aOn the southern side of the church, a simple volute carved on the side face of the stone is added to it and which one finds identical on that of the small wall cupboard of the apse.












dr_me_provencale_638aThe position of this church across a however narrow valley astonishes and badly today the life of these nuns thus isolated is imagined. Perhaps the establishment of the monastery is explained by the only concern of christianizing the virtues of the miraculous source but the vicinity of the main road of Germany in Provence was to make of this place a halt privileged for the so many pilgrims and other travellers at the Average Age.






dr_me_provencale_621aAn impression of loneliness, softness, plenitude emerges from the place. On the left while arriving, an orchard accomodates us. It is in this orchard that I heard a concert of silence… It is disturbing, nothing to hear whole, as in a box of insulation.
The church being dedicated to Notre-Dame and being called the brown one, I wonder whether a black virgin were not venerated in the crypt with the crowned source…
dr_me_provencale_643a

















dr_me_provencale_601http://www.centcols.org/les_rendez-vous/damian/monuments_romans_suite.htm

Publicité
Commentaires
Publicité