11 juin 2007
Notre-Dame the brown one of Aleyrac
Classified
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.
This
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.
Primitive
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.
The
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.
This
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…
Traces
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.
The
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.
The
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.
The
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.
On
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.
The
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.
An
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…
http://www.centcols.org/les_rendez-vous/damian/monuments_romans_suite.htm