11 juin 2007
The hill of Fourvière
The
hill of Fourvière dominates the city by a unevenness of 120 meters. The
Saone circumvents it with its foot. It is the last relief of the
central Solid mass before the plain of Dauphiné. De Fourvière the sight
towards the East covers the alpine range.
One
is ensured of the presence of men in Lyon at least since the Neolithic
era. Many vestiges testify some, in particular in the current district
of Vaise. Later, one finds the trace of a small named Celtic village
Condate, located at the edge of the Saone, with the foot of the hill of
theRusset-red one. The Rhone and the Saone are then the natural borders
of the territories of several Celtic people. The city is already a
frontier town marked by the importance of the two rivers. Since 61
before J-C, the first merchants Italian had settled in Condate, after
being driven out of Vienna.
The
hill of Fourvière had a religious vocation already then: Ségusiaves
(local Celtic people) called it Lugdunum, the hill (dunum) of Lug (god
corbel) where a sanctuary dedicated to this divinity was. Lug is
associated Mercure or Apollo, them same connected to… Michel saint.
It
is in 48 front J. - C. that Jules César establishes six legions on the
hill. This base of military establishment is used then as screen with
the foundation of Lugdunum in 43 front J. - C. by Munatius Plancus.
Under
Auguste (27 front J. - C.; 14 a. J. - C.) builds a Forum taking
thereafter the name of Forum vetus which by etymological evolution
becomes Fourvières losing its “S” final at the XIXe century.
A pious tradition tells that holy Pothin (first bishop of Lyon) would have brought with him an icon of the Virgin, towards 150.
On the hill of Fourvière had developed a commercial and prosperous Gallo-Roman city which attracted much from abroad, Italians and inhabitants of minor Asia, of Phrygie especially, which was a burning hearth of Christianity but also the fatherland of a worship with mysteries: that of Cybèle and Attis. Cybèle allowed resurrection its initiates when Attis with each vernal equinox reappeared.
This
worship took in Lyon a great importance. They are undoubtedly the
faithful ones of Cybèle which started the persecution of the Christians
into 177 (during which holy Pothin and holy Blandine perished), because
their merry festival of the rebirth of Attis coincided this year with
the Good Friday. Perhaps they transfer in the mourning of the
Christians martyrs an offence with Cybèle and, listened well Roman
authorities, they got rid of the Christian, minority community in Lyon.
In
196, when two emperors claimed with the direction of the Empire, Lyon
chooses Albin. Septime-severe, the winner, plundered the city. The
political role of Lyon weakens then with the profit of Truces and Arles
during IIIè century. The incursions of Frank and Alamans, as well as
Bagaudes (peasants brigands), the destruction of the aqueducts (to
occur the lead of the pipes), ruined the city in IVè/Vè centuries.
Part of the forum collapsed in IXeme century following a landslide.
A new site was selected with the foot of the hill of Fourvière, along the Saone. The hill will find only its religious vocation (and either its urban role) initially, and only in XIIè century, by the foundation of a vault in the honor of the Virgin Mary and of Thomas saint, equipped with a chapter depend on the Midsummer's Day cathedral.
In 1168 a vault is built on the hill. It is destroyed by the baron of the Adrets in 1562 and is rebuilt almost at once.
During
the Middle Ages, most of the hill is given in culture (vine). From
XVIème century, the installation of religious congregations on the hill
(Tiny Ursulines, Visitandines, brothers) gives to Fourvière its name of
“hill which requests”.
The worship marial in Fourvière develops. It becomes particularly popular when in 1638 Louis XIII devotes France to the Virgin.
The pilgrimages develop considerably and the vault cannot contain the flood of the pilgrims soon any more.
In 1848, the Cardinal of Bonald creates a commission to deal with the rebuilding of the bell-tower of the old vault. The founder members are especially notable Lyoneses.
For
a long time one projected to build a new sanctuary. In 1870, the
Prussians are with the doors of the city. Following the request the
Lyons ones, Mgr Ginoulhiac makes a wish: a Basilica will be built if
Lyon escapes the enemy occupation. The wish is exaucé. The first stone
is posed in 1872. Construction is very fast: the new votive building
dedicated to the Virgin is inaugurated in 1896.
Bossan
(1814-1888), the Lyons architect, had already carried out the
Saint-George church and the Investment property of J. Blanchon (Member
of the Commission of Fourvière), of “Moorish” style.
Its stay in
Sicily and especially its meeting with the priest of Ars are decisive
for its first project (engraved in 1856) entrusted by the Commission of
Fourvière for the construction of the future Basilica.
With his death in 1888, his/her collaborator, Sainte-Marie Perrin (1835-1917), succeed to him.
Other
achievements of Bossan: basilicas of Ars and of Saint-François-Governed
in Louvesc, churches of the Immaculate-Design in Lyon, Valfleury.
Since
1872, the building site is very popular because it reproduces the
methods of construction of the Average Age but also because the
Lyoneses are invited to take part in the project by buying stones
located on a personal level which is given to them.
Very
eclectic, the basilica was called “the elephant reversed” according to
the expression of Huysmans. Of very massive form, it is flanked of four
crenelated towers of which the height borders the 48 meters,
symbolizing each one a cardinal virtue. In south-west, it is the tower
of Justice; with the North-West, that of the Force. The North-East
represents south-eastern Prudence and it Temperance. It should be known
that the crosses that one sees at the tops of the two turns on each
side of the apse are in fact of the telephone relays. (argh….)
The
frontages north and south-west are decorated with scenes or characters
with the Old Will. Square, one can distinguish, with the pediment, the
Virgin. On its line, the aldermen beseech it to save them plague and on
its left, the clergy begs it to protect the city from German…
The frontage
20
years (1875 - 1895): it is the number of years that it will have been
necessary so that the frontage of the basilica of fourvière is built.
35 mêtres: it is the total width of the frontage.
56,70 mêtres: it is the height of the frontage.
Some
elements of architecture strike the glance. It acts above all of
contrast separating the towers characterized by their simplicity
(little decoration) and frontage centers it characterized by a great
number of ornaments in all kinds.
The lion of juda, in the center of the frontage, dominates the entry of the crypt.
This
lion, imagined and carved by Dufraisne between 1884 and 1888,
constitutes a double homage to Saint-Joseph and the town of Lyon.
Originally, Dufraisne was résponsable pediment. Bossan, principal
architect, finally entrusted only the only load of the lion to him,
reproaching his/her colleague “for falling into the baroque”.
- Doors of the crypt: make of bronze, they were installed in an objective of simplicity.
Higher,
on the pediment, 12 characters (from left to right: J. Planchon, L.
Brown, A. Frapet, P. Dugas, A. Boissieu, P. Brac of the Stone quarry,
Carndinal Coullié, Cardinal Cavert, Mgr Ginoulhiac, Cardinal of Bonald,
P. Bossan). They are the great Lyons figures of the XIXeme century.
With the top of them: the virgin. With the left of this one is
represented the Raphaël archangel, on his line, the Michel archangel.
The crypt
The
crypt of fourvière is devoted to Joseph. More than one crypt, it is
acted in fact of a low church whose vaults are lower than 10 meters.
In 1880, Pierre Bossan (1814-1888) will offer his annual fees to decorate the chorus with the crypt.
The chorus of the crypt is decorated with mosaics which comprise the texts evangelic and with the angels.
On
the ground, 7 capital sins: in first the evil is represented by a
dragon with seven heads. Then the peacock appears pride, the ants
trailing a fly avarice, the goat the lust, the snake the desire, the
cat anger, the wolf greediness and finally the tortoise appears the
idleness.
The apse
The
apse of Fourvière is a semicircular vault which closes the chorus of
the basilica. It is traditionally directed towards the East, which is
the case of the apse of the Basilica of Fourvière
Frescos
Saint
pothin arrives to Lyon: in the higher part of this terrestrial scene,
the Virgin Mary, base, the Jesus Child in her bosom, are surrounded by
six angels which plane and crowns offer to him, and, on a light line of
clouds, martyrs of Lyon, victims of the persecution of Marc Auréle in
177, by name designated in the letter of the Christians of Lyon and
Vienna to the Churches of Phrygie.
Inscription: Saint Pothin,
disciple of Polycarpe Saint, bringing the Christian faith of the
beaches of the East, instituted in Lyon, IIeme century, the worship of
the Virgin Mary.
This beautiful composition was to be the last work of the painter Charles Lameire (1832-1910). The large artist had come to Lyon to govern the completion of his work; he had the supréme joy of seeing it in place on Thursday 11 August 1910. A few days later it was confined to bed and it died chrétiennement, on Sunday 21 August, at the 78 years age. An inscription posed on the left of the panel and in bottom points out the douloureusecoincidence of achévement of the work and of died of the painter.
Marie
The
virgin is very present on the hill. Like Cybèle in his time, one
dedicates a burning worship to him. I did not count the
representations of Marie, I present some of them to you. And of course,
when a worship with the goddess-mother is set up, its parèdre is not
far. This is why Saint Michel is in the place of honor, all in top of
the cathedral, him which is accustomed to the high sanctuaries. The
hill of Lug becomes the hill of Michel Saint…
Notre-Dame
de Fourvière is a statue out of wooden, high one meter. It goes back to
1598. The original statue, the black virgin, was destroyed by the
Protestants in 1562. The legend wants to make of it a virgin of Luc
Saint, sent as a Gaulle by Saint Polycrate, disciple of Jean Saint.
Saint Pothin would have raised to him a worship in the crypt of Nizier
Saint, then at the XVIIème century the statue is found on the hill. No
document comes to prove this assertion.
http://www.fourviere.org/bas_.htm
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourvi%C3%A8re
http://www.lyon-fourviere.com/his_.htm
http://cathedrale-lyon.cef.fr/visite_guidee/histoire_lyon.html
http://www.lyon.fr/vdl/sections/fr/arrondissements/5arrdt/tourisme_decouverte4601/histoire
http://www.visitelyon.fr/fourviere/nef-fourviere.php
The Midsummer's Day cathedral
The Saint-Jean-Baptist-and-Saint-Étienne church
is the cathedral and primatiale of Lyon. The term of primatiale comes
from that of Primacy of Gaules, titrates historical of the bishop of
Lyon: the cathedral was recognized like such in 1079 by the pope
Gregoire VII, to take account of the seniority of the seat
archiépiscopal of Pothin Saint.
Its construction, decided at the
beginning of XIIème century by the abbot Gauceran, the founder of
Ainay, monk clunisien become archbishop of Lyon, will last five
centuries.
It
owes its name with the presence of a relic: a bone of the jaw of Jean
Saint. It rises on the site of primitive episcopal churches going back
to the 5th century which one found the foundations.
We
still have the structures of the churches Saint Etienne (where was
integrated the first Lyonnais baptistry of IVème century which one
reconnait the octagonal tank)
and
Holy Cross (arcade of rise, taken in the construction of buildings to
the XIXème century and handing-over in its position of origin), two of
the three pertaining to worship buildings of the cathédral group of
Lyon. This group was protected from the Saone, then nearer, by a wall
bricked up in IVème century, disappeared before the rebuilding from the
cathedral.
Scuplté on the northern porch, an acrobat holding the sky in his
hands begins its reversal. Concurrently to him, “birth”, the outgoing
new man of the “animal”.
Built
of 1180 to 1480, it mixes the Romance style and the Gothic.
Construction started in XIIème century with the wall of the cloister.
Les
parties basses de l'abside , les deux chapelles latérales et le
transept sont construit entre 1165 et 1180 en style roman. La voûte de
l'abside puis du transept en style gothique, les deux tours orientales,
les quatre premières travées de la nef et leur voûtefin sont achevés
entre le XIIème siècle et 1er tiers du XIIIème siècle.
Au
milieu du XIIIème siècle, les verrières du chœur et les deux rosaces du
transept sont achevées. Entre la fin du XIIIème siècle et le premier
tiers du XIVème siècle, les quatre dernières travées et la partie
inférieure de la façade sont achevés. La fin du XIVème siècle voit
l'achévement de la voûte des dernières travées et de la rosace de la
façade en 1392.
Au
XVème siècle, la partie haute de la façade et les tours sont terminée.
La statue de Dieu le Père est placée au sommet du pignon en 1481.
La
chapelle des Bourbons (du nom des archevêques qui en ont ordonné la
construction), de style gothique flamboyant, est construite entre la
fin du XVème siècle et le début XVIème siècle. En 1562, La cathédrale
est dévastée par les troupes calvinistes du baron des Adrets.
Les
verrières médiévales de la grande nef et du tympan du grand portail
sont détruite au XVIIIème siècle sur l'ordre des Chanoines. Pendant la
révolution, la Cathédrale subit quelques dégradations. Entre 1791 et
1793, l'évêque Lamourette ordonne la modification du chœur. Il fait
notamment détruire le jubé. Le chœur est restauré dans sa disposition
médiévale entre 1935 et 1936. Lors de la libération de Lyon en
septembre 1944, une partie des vitraux ont été détruits.
La façade
Elle
est en partie composée de blocs provenant d'anciens monuments romains
s'étant effondrés au IXe siècle, en particulier de l'ancien forum. Elle
est très marquée par la fin du XVe siècle, à savoir un gothique des
plus flambloyants.
Les 300 médaillons de façade racontent différents
épisodes de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament. Au XVIe siècle, le Baron
des Adrets, calviniste, détruisit toutes les statues des saints dans
les niches de la façade et décapita tous les anges des trois portails.
Le chevet
Pour bien le voir, il est nécessaire de traverser la Saône.
Il
s'agit d'un chevet d'inspiration romane, sans arc-boutants, à trois
niveaux : des fenêtres en arcs brisés, une galerie d'arcs en plein
cintre, aveugles, correspondant au triforium, et des fenêtres hautes
géminées, abritées sous un porche profond.
Il
est couronné d'une balustrade ponctuée de pinacles et encadré par les
tours du transept, elles aussi à toit plat et peu élevées.
La manécanterie
Il
s'agit vraisemblablement de l'ancien refectoire canonial des chanoines
de Saint-Jean, qui devint le logement des chantres au XIVème siècle,
d'où son nom :"mane cantare" qui veut dire "chanter de bon matin". Elle
est le seul édifice civil d'époque romane à Lyon.
Sa
façade du XIème siècle est romane et comporte un étage d'arcatures
richement décoré, notamment une figure debout pointant l'index vers une
étoile à 8 branches (astronomie?), un musicien, un géomètre et une
femme dans l'attitude de la vierge à l'enfant entourée de 4 personnages
dont un homme d'armes.
L'intérieur de la cathédrale
longueur à l'intérieur 80 m
hauteur de la tour Ouest 44 m
hauteur de la nef 32.50 m
largeur de la nef 26 m
longueur de la nef 19.30
hauteur du choeur 24.30 m
longueur du choeur 20 m
On
peut y observer la chronologie de construction: l'abside et le chœur
sont romans et plus l'on s'avance vers la façade, plus le style est
gothique.
Les vitraux, tels que la rosace centrale et celles du
transept datent des alentours de 1390 et sont dans des tons bleu-violet
caractéristiques. La couleur des vitraux a été adaptée à leur position:
les plus au sud ont des couleurs froides pour compenser la chaleur du
soleil, alors que ceux au nord ont des couleurs plus chaudes.
L'abside
est la partie la plus ancienne, datant du XIIème siècle et est donc
intégralement romane. La nef est couverte de voûtes sexpartites. La
chapelle des Bourbons est pleinement représentative du gothique
flamboyant.
La nef 
de
huit travées, couverte par des voûtes sexpartites, a une élévation à
trois niveaux : de grandes arcades ; un triforium à mur de fond plein,
composé de baies à quatre arcades, groupées par deux par un arc de
décharge brisé. Les remplages sont percés d'oculi polylobés dans les
deux premières travées. Le troisième niveau est occupé par des fenêtres
hautes à trois lancettes, surmontées de trois oculi.
On remarque aussi que l'axe de l'église est dévié deux fois : au niveau de la quatrième travée et à l'entrée de l'abside.
Le
revers de la façade comporte, au-dessus des portails ornés de gâbles,
un triforium à quatre baies composées de deux arcades puis la rose
(avec au centre l'agnus dei).
Le
mur de raccordement entre la nef et le transept, rendu nécessaire par
la différence d'élévation, est orné d'une rose rayonnante encadrée de
deux petites baies. Le mur de raccordement entre les croisillons du
transept et la croisée sont décorés par une galerie aveugle surmontée
d'un oculus. Chaque croisillon du transept comporte deux travées dont
l'une ouvre sur les absidioles.
L'horloge astronomique
Originellement du XIVe siècle, elle fut remaniée plusieurs fois.
Elle
indique: la date, les positions de la lune, du soleil et de la Terre,
ainsi que celle des étoiles au-dessus de Lyon. Bien entendu, compte
tenu des connaissances de l'époque, c'est le soleil qui tourne autour
de la Terre. La date donnée sera exacte jusqu'en 2019.
Le choeur d'hiver, ou chapelle des chanoines
Fermée la plupart du temps, et gardée par des cerbères, cette chapelle
est l'endroit où je me sens le mieux pourtant. Le cloitre se
développait au sud de la cathédrale, sur l'emplacement de trois
chapelles latérales, dont il ne reste plus que la galerie ouest, celle
qui précisément fait office de choeur d'hiver aux chanoines.
La porte occidentale du cloitre, la seule conservée, porte une statue de la vierge à l'enfant.
Au plafond de la chapelle, sur une clé de voûte, la sculpture de 'la
main qui guérit". C'est à cet endroit, marqué au sol par une étoile en
laiton, que ce trouve le point guérisseur de la cathédrale. C'est
peut-être pour éviter tout débordement que le clergé cache cet endroit
aux yeux du commun des mortels...
Le tellurisme
Un
croisement de 3 courants principaux sous la croisée des transepts : le
premier Est/ouest pasant par Clermont-Ferrand et allant vers l'Italie
du nord, le deuxième venant de Suisse et partant vers Saint etienne, et
le Puy, jusqu'en Espagne (saint Jean-pied-de-port) et le troisième
Nord/sud passant par Sens, Auxerre, Autun, Mâcon et Villefranche se
poursuit en direction de Vienne, Valence, Montélimar, Avignon, Arles,
Les Saintes Maries de la mer où il se jette dans la Méditerranée.
(Bouchet)
Georges Prat a fait un relevé des courants telluriques. Il trouve deux cheminées cosmo-telluriques, une dans le choeur, l'autre à cheval entre la chapelle des Bourbons et le choeur d'hiver. C'est dans cet endroit que se trouve "la main qui soigne", sur une clé de voûte.
http://architecture.relig.free.fr/lyon_jean.htm
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primatiale_Saint-Jean_(Lyon)
The Saint-Paul church
The
Saint-Paul church, located on right bank of the Saone, with the foot of
the hill of Fourvière, is one of the three older currently preserved
churches of Lyon.
The district, near to the cathedral, was a long
time a shopping and financial centre very important. When it is
discovered, it aparait just in lower part of the basilica of Fourvière.
Seven of its furnace bridges were dedicated to the virgin.
A
tradition allots to Saint Sacerdos, bishop of Lyon from 549 to 552, the
foundation of a monastery of men in this place where another religious
building rose before. It was under the reign of Childebert and his
Ultrogothe wife (I adore…) who had established not far from there a
hospital under the term of Notre-Dame of the saulnery, the first
hospital, had called Saint-Eloi then.
In
VIIIème century, the monastery, in this difficult and disturbed time,
had to suffer much, in particular with the passage of the armies.
Fortunately, Leidrade, archbishop of Lyon from 798 to 814, “gave in
state the house of Paul Saint” according to his own terms. It is the
time of the Carolingian rebirth which erased the traces of devastations
of the previous centuries.
To
ensure the spiritual and moral restoration, thus quue the
evangelization, it replaced the monks by a chapter of a score of
canons. Later, in XIème century, when the parishes were organized, it
became parish church.
The
time of the Gregorian reform, Hugues 1st, archbishop of Lyon of 1081 to
1106, asked that the collegiate church was rebuilt, because it was
again in very bad condition. To allow the company, it made important
gifts, and the generosity of the parishioners supplemented the real
estate which ensured the continuity of work.
We do not know what remains primitive churches, while noticing that
the presence of brick levelling courses in the frontages North and
South of the transept point out Carolingian constructions. The chorus
with its cupola, the transept crossing, the nave date from XIIème
century, in style romano-Byzantine.
The ribbed vaults were posed in
XIIIème century. The cloister which bordered the church was demolished
later to allow the construction of vaults on the sides.
The
bell-tower goes back to 1440. (The arrow was replaced in 1875, its
cover remade in 1982.). The Romance gate was replaced in 1648 by a gate
of Doric order (then in 1877 in a neo-classic style).
Many work was
made in 1653. But about 1780, the aspect of the church was completely
changed. The central apse was lengthened. The church was restored
throughout the XIXème century.
On the site of the current place Gerson existed the St. Lawrence church, which was rebuilt in 1250, then in 1635, entirely destroyed again by a fire in 1793.
Of
form basilicale, the church measures 45m length by 16m broad. The
cupola of XIIème century includes/understands two superimposed
octagonal domes. The lantern was posed in 1833.
Place
Gerson, one enters by the SAINT LAURENT door, of XIIème century, which
gave access to a roofed passageway leading to the church of the same
name. The arcivolte in semicircular arch, of Romance time, is made of
three decorated curves. At the tympanum at in 1987 the moulding of a
marble low-relief was placed currently with the Gadagne museum. It
comes from the cloister of the church and was close to the tomb of a
certain Richard. One finds Roman stones of re-employment in very
readable matters.
The
cornices of the roofs are supported by modillons with varied
decoration. It seems to to me to see the various phases of large-work
there.
The
nave comprises four spans delimited by four pillars with carved
capitals of foliage or human heads. A plank runs above the arcs. The
vault is supported by intersecting ribs decorated with gilded flowers
and by arcs beams.
The
side chapels date from XVème century. The second on the right is
original: on the curve of the ogival arc eight medallions are carved.
Both of bottom, on each side, carry the armorial bearings of the
givers. Then, on the basis of the left, one finds angels singing and
playing of an instrument: bagpipe, organ, toothing-stone, theatre,
lute, trumpet.
In the following vault, the warheads of the vault are curiously decorated heads of angels.
The
transept crossing is dominated by a cupola over horns whose arcs meet
in beam with the keystone curiously decorated of a hanging gilded dove.
Under the vault are windows separated by a series from decorated
Romance arcades of carved capitals. 
The chorus ends in an apse in bottom of furnace. Restored in 1899, its grooved pilasters were replaced by paintings.
The
Holy-Marguerite vault was founded in 1400 per Jean de Precieu. It is in
this place that I felt best. Perhaps because before the cloister of the
good monks was there…
The
vault of the baptismal funds dates from XVème century. The escutcheon
with the ceiling is that of the maitre of work, Jean Palmier…
What
was the vault of Notre-Dame and the three kings was very reduced
because of the widening of the street. It became the vault of Jean
Gerson.
http://www.lyon-evasion.com/indexeglisestpaul1.htm
La basilique saint Martin d'Ainay
Sur son emplacement fut construit le premier sanctuaire
chrétien de Gaule. Une première chapelle fut édifiée en cet endroit au
II ème siècle, sur un temple très ancien.
Le confluent, entre Rhône et Saône, était une zone marécageuse parsemée d'iles. Après la période romaine, les premiers chrétiens construisirent vraisemblablement un monastère qui fut détruit plusieurs fois : par les Huns, les Vandales, les crues du fleuve, les Arabes....
Sabin, compagnon de Romain, aurait été abbé d'Ainay au début du V ème siècle. Salonius aurait restauré les bâtiments du monastère et lui aurait donné le vocable de Saint Martin. Anselme, abbé au VI ème siècle, aurait construit l'église saint Pierre pour remplacer saint Martin détruite.
L'abbaye est mentionnée à l'époque d'aurélien au milieu du IX ème siècle.
Enfin, la nouvelle abbaye fut construite et consacrée par le pape
Pascal II, le 27 Janvier 1107. Amblard commence sa restauration au
début du XII ème. Gauceran en achève la construction. Le
pape Innocent IV réunit à Lyon sous le reigne de Saint Louis le concile
qui excommunie l’empereur Frédéric II. Après six ans passé à Ainay, il
reconnaît à l’abbaye 71 églises, abbayes et prieurés dispersés de la
Bourgogne à la Provence, ce qui aida son essor.
(Une des photos représente la dédicace du pape, retrouvée sous le choeur en 1852)
A la renaissance, le monastère possède un port sur le fleuve, son abbé habite un palais, les moines disposent d’importants bâtiments conventuels, de deux cloîtres, d’un jardin, d’une vigne. En 1562, les troupes réformées du baron des Adrets détruisent de nombreux bâtiments. En 1600, Henry IV y séjourne à l’occasion de son mariage avec Catherine de Médicis. Louis XIII y passe quatre fois avec son ministre Richelieu, puis Louis XIV quelques années plus tard. La Révolution lui est fatale : palais des abbés rasé, bâtiments et terres vendues, église transformée en grenier.
Les clochers.
Ses deux clochers sont caractéristiques de l’art roman. Le plus haut, au dessus de la façade, contient les cloches.Il se détachait en avant de l'église au XI ème siècle. J'ai mis plusieurs années avant de me rendre compte qu'un acrobate s'accrochait sur l'un de ses angles...
L'acrobate représente le retournement, comme celui que l'on trouve par exemple avant de pénétrer dans l'église de Thuret.
"Il est le reflet de nous même, il nous permet d'acceder à notre propre image intérieure."
Il
nous indique le chemin, et quand les énergies basculent, c'est à nous
de trouver un nouvel état de conscience pour que "de simple pélerin
nous puissions grandir en force, en sagesse et en gloire". 
L’autre est un clocher lanterne qui éclaire la croisée du transept; typique de la région Lyonnaise.
Entre les fenêtres des 2e et 3e étages de la facade, la surface de la pierre est occupée par une croix de briques qui semble suspendue à un collier d’émail rouge et blanc. Sous ce collier, on distingue une frise comportant une quinzaine de sujets taillés en méplat et représentant des animaux symboliques, comme le lion, le griffon ou le cerf repris à l'intérieur.(Cernunnos).
Deux gardiens de chaque côté du porche d'entrée...
Le volume intérieur de la nef est ample (34 m de long sur 17 m de large, bas-côtés compris). Remaniée de nombreuses fois au cours des siècles, la charpente primitive de la nef a été remplacée au XIXe siècle par une voûte. A cette même époque, les murs latéraux ont été percés d’arcs ouvrant sur des chapelles.
Les colonnades de la nef rappellent les églises de 4e siècle. On devine pourquoi : Lyon avait été une capitale antique dont les ruines étaient loin d’avoir disparu. Pour construire une nef, il était tout simple de réutiliser les colonnes romaines qu’on avait sous la main. C’est ce qui explique l’originalité de cette église, peut-être unique en France.
Les quatre monolithes qui supporte le clocher
lanterne à la croisée du transept proviennent des restes du sanctuaire
des Trois-Gaules dont l’autel était encadré par deux colonnes
gigantesques que les gallo-romains avaient jadis fait venir d’Egypte.
Ces deux colonnes furent sciées en deux, embarquées sur la Saône et
hissées sur le chantier de Saint-Martin d’Ainay. 
Dans l'abside, des frises horizontales présentent des médaillons carrés ou circulaires, encadrés par des rinceaux. (1120-1135). Nous retrouvons ici notre ami le cerf, ainsi que le pélican, l'homme dont la bouche est le départ de ramures (voir symbolique dans Thuret).
La basilique est en cours de restauration, c'est pourquoi je ne peux vous proposer les vues de la façade est...
Bon
cette fois la restauration est faite, je vous propose quelques photos.
Je dois dire qu'ils ont fait un travail extraordinaire, c'est
magnifique...
Etude symbolique de la basilique saint Martin d'Ainay
Pourquoi Ainay ?
Certains parlent d'athanacum, d'autres d'Ainacum ou d'Ageniacum. Il y a même une thèse rapprochant Ainay d'Athéna, déesse de la sagesse. Il semble que l'origine la plus probable soit celle d'Athanatos ou Athanoï au pluriel," l'immortel "en grec. Une autre explication fait dériver Ainay de es nao, vers le temple.
Belle entrée pour l'étude d'un lieu sacré...
Je me fie à Georges Prat dans son livre "résonnances du sacré" pour l'étude géobiologique:
Il y a présence d'un courant d'eau souterrain important dans l'axe de la nef principale, plus un courant d'eau parallèle sous chacun des bas-côtés, un dans l'axe de la chapelle sainte Blandine (comme nous l'avons vu précédemment) et l'autre dans l'axe de la chapelle Saint Joseph. Des courants d'eau secondaires, perpendiculaires aux premiers, se croisent sous les autels. Deux séries de failles viennent conforter le système. Présence de trois cheminées cosmo-telluriques.
Tout au long de la visite, des chapiteaux nous rappellent la présence de ces énergies.
Les vitraux, bien que de facture récente, nous proposent une bien belle vision de l'oeuvre...
Nous allons retrouver le cheminement alchimique et toute sa symbolique.
Si Blandine fait office de Déesse-Mère, dans sa crypte souterraine,
alors il nous faut trouver son parèdre, Saint Michel. Et bien nous
n'avons pas loin à chercher...
La chapelle Saint Michel se trouve à l'emplacement d'une ancienne
chapelle dédiée à la vierge en 1107. Sa consécration date de 1690, mais
il est là, flamboyant...
St Nizier
The
first religious building located on the site of the current church is a
Roman monument, probably a temple of Attis. Attis or Atys is a divinity
of Phrygian origin, parèdre of the Cybèle goddess, of which he is at
the same time the son and the lover. It can be compared with Adonis,
parèdre of Aphrodite-Astarté, or Tammuz, parèdre of Ishtar. Its worship
with mysteries was spread in Greece, then in all the Roman Empire. The
monuments represent Attis as a Phrygian shepherd, with the bonnet, the
stick of the shepherd, the syrinx and the tympanon, its costume
sticking leaving the belly to overdraft. It carries typically Persian
trousers (anaxyrides). One of its emblems is the cock (Wales), because
Attis was the first of Wales. One also sees it with Cybèle, in the same
tank trailed by lions. The faithful ones of Attis would have played a
part in persecution antichrétienne of 177.
According
to the legend, a new sanctuary, in 150, was built on the site of the
Roman monument, (which one still sees the columns in front of the
frontage on the plan of XVIeme century), by Saint Pothin. It is a place
of worship which it dedicates to the virgin. Saint Pothin was the first
bishop of Lyon and the first bishop of Gaule. Resulting from a
community from Raising in Phrygie, it was stopped at the same time as
holy Blandine and than a group of Christians under the reign of Marc
Aurèle into 177. They are known under the name of Martyrs of Lyon.
Saint Pothin dies in prison probably on June 2 following the ill
treatments inflicted by his torturers. Saint Irenee succeeded to him.
At
the 5th century, according to the tradition, Holy Eucher, 19th bishop
of Lyon, builds on the ruins of the building a basilica to shelter the
relics of the first 48 martyrs of Lyon, among which holy Pothin and
holy Blandine.
The church receives the name of “church of the Saints Apostles”, namely Pierre and Paul. The bishops of Lyon are made there bury during all VIème century, in particular holy Nizier, 28th bishop. The body of saint Nizier, uncle de Grégoire de Tours, buried into 573, gave place immediately to many miracles. Gregoire devotes to him several chapters of the Liber vitae patrum.
From
these texts one can draw a description of the tomb of Nizier Saint who
must be in good place in the church and elevated since a blind man is
cured while placing himself under the coffin. Very quickly a worship of
this saint bishop of Lyon it is developed so much so that the church
ends up taking its name. The body of this last attracts a so large
crowd, the miracles that one lends to him are so numerous that the
church ends up taking its name.
In
first half of VIIIème century, holy Nizier, like the other Lyons
churches, is devastated by incursions of Sarassins going up the valley
of the Rhone then by the brutal reconquests of Charles Martel. It is
rebuilt only in IXème century, on the order of the bishop Leidrade,
friend of Charlemagne, which associates a canonic chapter to him. It is
then a small Romance church with bell-tower that one can see on a seal
going back to 1271, and as in any chapter, the life is organized around
a cloister. This cloister was located at the south of the church,
between this one and the street Poulaillerie. It was to have
approximately 15 meters on side.
The district of the church embourgeoise, from now on the election of the consuls and aldermen is proclaimed there. Pierre Valdo, in XIIIème century, is the parishioner. Its disciples, the of Vaud ones, shocked by the richness of the places, put fire at the church in 1253.
The archbishop Louis de Villars undertakes the construction of the current church in XIVème century, with the assistance of the middle-class men who wish to have their own church in the peninsula (the primatiale Midsummer's Day is in the course of completion on other bank of the Saone).
It
melts in 1306 a collegial chapître, i.e. a college of canons intended
to hold the church and to ensure the divine office it. It starts with
the chorus, in the east, like wants it the tradition. Work advances
gradually, and the church is completed only at the end of XVIème
century.
It undergoes the damage caused by the bands huguenotes of
the area, which plundered the tombs of the bishops of Lyon, then those
of the French revolution.
This
blazing monument of Gothic style already announces by place the
Rebirth. Construction took place by stages, of the chorus to the
frontage, XIVème century and XVIème century for the whole of the
central nave, the side aisles and their voûtements, as well as side
chapels. The Northern bell-tower with its pink brick arrow is high in
the middle of XVème century. It is only the end of XVIème century which
the Benoit architect completes the frontage by the construction of the
Gothic pinion above the central gate and the Southern bell-tower in
1856.
On
a wall of the crypt, a fragment of the epitaph of Sacerdos saint,
bishop of Lyon (549-552). Always in the crypt one can admire a first
statue of Notre-Dame de Grâce of XVIème century.
The
first crypt was destroyed in 1883. Thanks to an investigation going
back to 1308, we know that it contained the tombs of the bishops and
their epitaphs.
Descriptions
of 1883 are rather precise: the central square of 4m on side is
surrounded by 4 absidioles of 2,50m of diameter. A tomb in the shape of
trough appears with the birth of a vault. Side staircases give access
to the chorus.
The
plan of the church is characteristic of XIVème and the blazing Gothic:
3 levels of rise with a triforium, 3 naves, a transept, an apse and 2
absidioles, 9 side chapels, vast bays and finely decorated Gothic
vaults.
Its dimensions are impressionantes for a parish church: 74m length, 28 of width and 29 height.
Outside, one admires the arcs paring on the side walls north and south. The blocks of limestone of the low part of the building come partly from recoveries of the Roman city of Lugdunum on the hill of Fourvière.
Saint Nizier is the only church of Lyon having two bell-towers.
Posed outside the apse, a hairy man questions himself: what to make to leave the animality?
George
Prat made a geobiologic study of the égise. He finds two chimneys
cosmo-telluric, one with transept crossing and the other in the vault
of the baptismal funds. in the axis of the church, a current of subsoil
water of the width of the principal door. On the site of the furnace
bridge, cross this current, another current as well as a fault. Another
current is used as the Jordan. The weakness of telluric energy was
paliée by the addition of beds of rollers (blue bands) which act like
current water truths.
http://www.visitelyon.fr/eglises-cathedrales/eglise,saint-nizier.php
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-Nizier_(Lyon)
the oak of Saint-Louis
To Maurice saint on Dargoire, more in the south while
following the back of the dragon… the worthy one said to us that it was
1450 years old.
