Interactive maps of Romanesque churches in Burgundy

These are short instructions for use of the interactive maps of Romanesque churches in Burgundy. . This description is entirely based on the interactive map for the department Saône-et-Loire (71), but is als valid for the remaining 3 departments (21, 58 and 89).

The Romanesque churches in Saône-et-Loire

This map is entirely based on a web page , further referred to as EvB, where (almost) all Romanesque churches in Département Saône-et-Loire (71) are inventoried. Only a few churches outside this department are included, basically because they are just outside 71 and because they are normally included in travel guides for this department, e.g. Charlieu -42-, Neuilly-en-Donjon -03-.


A short explanation on how this map works:

1. Symbols

The lefthand side menu contains a number of symbols.

1a. The first symbol, the red house, points to our house, the basis for our tours in search of Romanesque churches in the area.

The basis of this map (71)

Symbol 1a : the red house




















1b and 1c. The information symbol i points to general, not necessarily building or edifice related information.

Link to the "instructions for use (71)"

Symbol 1b : the information symbol  i  .
This particlar i gives a link to the "instructions for use" of this map.

Places of interest in and around Cluny (71)

Symbol 1c : the information symbol  i  .
This particlar i points to major places of interest, enabling the user to "jump" straight to a specific town or area (Cluny, Tournus, Brionnais, etc.). From there it is easy to zoom in or out to find edifices in or around the area itself.




1d. Symbols in the shape of various pointers.

The remaing symbols are pointers, in various shapes : upside down drops (called drops) in various colours, with or without en eye in the middle, drawing pins in matching colours, blue question marks and purple cameras. The colours of drops and drawing pins are all related to the rating of the buildings.



The matrix below shows how the various edifices are indicated.
Vertical :
The colours of the markers follow the rating of Eduard van Boxtel's website (EvB).
The dark-blue markers on the lefthandside are used for edifices wit a rating of "6" on a scale of 6, hence for buildings of extraordinary architectural interest (e.g. Cluny, Tournus).
To the right the importance diminishes from "5" (red) down to "1" (dark-violet), where the latter is a building with very few romanesque features (e.g. a window opening, a baptismal font).
The column on the utmost righthandside (purple pointers) indicates that EvB so far has had insufficient information to properly rank the building; they are indicated as ranking "1 or 2".
Horizontal :
The top row (drops with a black eye in the middle) indicates that there are pictures available on the internet. The description of the buildings gives a link to EvB's site only. The rating of those drops runs from "6" down to "2". As soon as as I have my own pictures available, the drop will be replaced by one without a black eye in the middle. In principle the amount of drops with a black eye in the middle should decrease.
The middle row (drops without a black eye in the middle) indicates that there are pictures available on the internet. The description of the buildings gives a link to a Picasa Album of myself, Cees van Halderen (CvH) as well as (sometimes, not always) to a page of EvB's site. The rating of those drops runs from "6" down to "1" and to catagory "1 or 2" (undetermined). In principle the amount of drops without a black eye in the middle should increase.
The bottom row (drawing pins) indicates that there are not yet pictures available on the internet (at least not from EvB or CvH). The rating of those drawing pins falls in the catagories of "3", "2", "1" and "1 or 2". In principle the amount of drawing pins should decrease.

The matrix of pointers

2. Tags or labels

A typical tag (71)

Header and description of a tag


















The header contains:
Postcode
Place or hamlet name. Place names or hamlet names in the side menu are ordered alphabetically, with in case of hamlets the name of the commune between brackets behind the hamlet's name.
Name of edifice.
Rating in stars on scale ranging from 6 to 1 (EvB).


The description contains:
Some particulars about the edifice, if available.
The century the building was erected.
Accuracy of the location on the map.
100% spot on, 90 to 50% reasonable, 0% unknown.
A link to one or more picture albums.
Bourgogne Romane (EvB): gives a short description of the edifice and photographs.
Cees van Halderen (CvH): gives only, but usually more photographs.
Sometimes there is a link to both albums, sometimes to one of either albums.



3. Examples

Some examples of the various entries are given below.
Needless to say, that these are only examples; a drop with a black eye in the middle or a drawing pin could in the meantime have been replaced by a drop without a black eye in the middle.

Edifice with "6" star rating (71)

Building rated "6" out of 6 based on EvB's scale.

Edifice with "2" star rating (71)

Building rated "2" out of 6 based on EvB's scale.

Edifice with "1 or 2" star rating (71)

Building rated "1 or 2" out of 6 based on EvB's scale.
Edifice of which neither EvB nor I have yet photographs or detailed information available.














4. Buildings of which is not even sure whether they are Romanesque at all

Edifice without rating, no pictures available (71)

Building which has no rating (red question mark).
Edifice of which it is not even sure whether it is romanesque at all.
neither EvB nor I have yet photographs or detailed information available.

Edifice without rating, pictures available (71)

Building which has no rating (red camera).
Edifice of which it is not even sure whether it is romanesque at all.
Although I have some photographs available, they are insufficient to qualify the building as romanesque.
People who might be able to clarify this are requested to contact me via email. 



Information can be sent to the following email address:
ceesvanhalderen@gmail.com

Niet romaans gebouw (71)

A building of which it became clear that it has no Romanesque featues (red exclamation mark). There are only pictures available on the internet taken by CvH. The edifice is still shown on this map because there is either still a link between this building and another (often demolished) Romanesque building, or because the building is worth visiting despite it not being Romanesque. There are however very few buildings marked thus; at this moment there are only two.



5. remaining departments 

Boundering departement

Finally the map shows a number of "speed limit signs". the figures on display are however not speed limits, but department numbers. The signs with the numbers 21 (Côte-d'Or), 58 (Nièvre) and 89 (Yonne) contain a link to the map of the relevant department; they are almost as complete as the one for department 71. Because romanesque architecture in Burgunduy does not stop abruptly at the present border of this region, the bordering departments (e.g. 01, 03, 10, etc.) are indicateed with their own "speed limit sign". For most of these departments van Boxtel has made a (limited, arbitrary) choice from the romanesque churches in in a belt of roughly 25 km around Burgundy.
N.B.: the partial maps of the boundering departments 01, 03, 10, 18, 39, 42, 45, 52, 69 and 77 are incomplete and onnly give an impression of the area around Burgundy.

6. conclusion

Needless to say that this map does not pretend to be complete. It is virtually impossible to keep two separate sites, i.e. this map and van Boxtel's site completely in line with each other. When the latter adds a photo page to his site this will not automatically mean that this map will be updated as well. However, I think that this map is very usefull for those who would like to find out which churches can be found in a certain area.
Comments are always welcome!

Websites and churches

Whenever I use a website slightly more than normal, there is bound to come a day when I think "Would it not be handier if....". And nine out of ten times it does not come any further then a loose thought, although...

Part of the list of churches on "Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne"

Ever since I have been looking for information about Romanesque churches in Burgundy, I am using "Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne" more and more often. This is mainly because the site contains a lot of information on the subject. And since I am quite interested in this subject, I spent more and more time on that site. And indeed, one day I thought "Would it not be handier if there was also a map available, where one can see very quickly what a certain area has to offer?". An email to the webmaster told me that he would like to have this feature as well, but that he had not gotten around it yet.
As a workable alternative I changed my database of churches such, that I could sort that database on specific areas as well, instead of only alphabetically or on rating. A list with churches in the vicinity of e.g. Montceau-les-Mines could be generated very quickly.

Zoomed in on the area of Cluny (Google Map satellite view)

One day my better half bumped into an option of Google Maps. Although making an interactive map was a lot of work, it was certainly doable and not very difficult. After a number of days hard work I now am the proud owner of an interactive map of "all" Romanesque churches in Saône-et-Loire. I can now pinpoint easily and quickly all churches in a certain area, find out how they are classified and find pictures of them. In a following blog a short explanation of how to use the map will be given.
And what about the rest of Burgundy? I gladly leave that chore for someone else!

A transformation : from chapel to church

For the umpteenth time on our way to the church in Saint -Maurice-de-Satonnay in order to see a wall painting in the (non-Romanesque) Sant-Denis we passed through the hamlet of Satonnay. There seems to be a curse on this particular visit, because every time we go there we find that church shut.

Notre Dame in Satonnay

But anyway, Satonnay itself has a small Romanesque church, although according to various websites the church is private property and not open to the public. Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne says that it is not a church, but a chapel. Since I had only one picture of this chapel, we decided to stop and snoop around a bit. The gate that gave access to the space around the church was locked, so having a look inside was impossible. However, on the side of the church there was a notice giving some information. From the information some conclusions could be drawn:

Firstly, this was the church of Satonnay, not a chapel. The church was built in the 10th century, and had been regularly altered over the centuries. It was originally dedicated to Saint-Victor, then to Saint-Maurice. Between 1978 and 1999 there had been regular appearances of the virgin Mary, reason why the church had been re-christened as " Notre Dame de Satonnay, Queen of the Poor".

De "bijsluiter" van de kerk in Satonnay

Secondly, and what I found most interesting, was that the church was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Autun. The church was run by clergy following the traditions from before the second Vatican Council. It follows the Latin liturgy according to Saint-Pie-V (Pope Pius V, 1504-1572).

Paraphrasing the title of one of John Grisham's novels, one could classify this church as a run-away church.
And I had been convinced for a long time that only the Protestants were divided amongst themselves....

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Church Notre-Dame (first Saint-Victor, then Saint-Maurice) in Satonnay (Saint-Maurice-de-Satonnay), 10th century, 0*

For our own website, click here.

Gimme shelter

Some time ago I read in the local newspaper that an old run down chapel in Verchizeuil, a hamlet of Verzé, was in such a bad state that the local pompiers had decided to cover the chapel with tarpaulins in order to protect the inside from the elements.

Chapelle Saint-Criat in Verchizeuil

I had never heard of the hamlet, let alone of the chapel, but one day, looking for something completely different, we drove through Verchizeuil; the place name triggered off remembering this newspaper article. Almost immediately after entering the village we saw a sign saying "Chapelle Saint-Criat" to the right, and we decided to follow the sign posted path on the edge of the forest. The path continued, became muddier and muddier, the slopes up and down became steeper and steeper, but we carried on as good as we could. After having plodded about a kilometre through mud and huge puddles we ended up at the foot of a hill. we left the car there, and struggled up hill on foot. The map shows clearly where the chapel is.

Apse of the Chapelle Saint-Criat in Verchizeuil

From Verchizeuil a path runs along the edge of the forest to the south-west. Just after the path starts running through the fields, it makes a bend to the right. At the end of the bend lies the chapel. Depending on the settings in Google maps (one can switch the option "labels" on) the chapel (at this moment -2013- on Google maps still without cover) is clearly indicated. The picture dates from before the action of the pompiers.
There is not much to tell about the chapel itself. People have started to install roof trusses, and most likely they are waiting for a truck load of subsidy to be able to buy roof tiles.
The chapel goes most likely back to the 11th century, and it was originally dedicated to Saint-Martin. The rather strange present name is possibly a corruption of the name it received then: Saint-Christ. The chapel has ever been a place of pilgrimage for mothers with children suffering from rachitis (rickets). The remedy was : scrape some stone from the altar and mix it through the children's food. Mothers and children were complaining bitterly and loudly (crier in French, present participle criant) about the pain they were suffering from, and slowly the name of the chapel changed from Saint-Christ to Saint-Chriat. Apart from this story there is not much to tell about this beautifully located but dilapidated chapel...

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former chapel Saint-Criat in Verchizeuil (Verzé), 11th century, 1*

For our own website, click here.

Interior van de Chapelle Saint-Criat in Verchizeuil

Seek, and ye shall find?

We have a client in Donzy-le-National, and this village also has a Romanesque church.

The church in Donzy-le-National

At first glance it did not look very exciting, but the outside has a few interesting features, and the apse turned out to have some nice arcatures.
According to my virtual travel guide Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne there was another Romanesque church in the hamlet of Ciergues, which is part of Donzy as well. One day, when we were travelling home from this client we noticed that we had passed through this hamlet a thousand times, but we had simply never spotted the sign Ciergues.

Ciergues from the air

The next time we drove through both of us kept our eyes wide open; there was not much traffic on the D41, and we had all the time to have a good look at the three clusters of houses making up the hamlet. Needless to say that we did not spot anything.
Our walking encyclopaedia came with the following answer : "It is a former church, nowadays in use as storage space. Location unknown, hence I cannot tell you where to look."
Well, that was not much use.

Picture 1 : the first farm in Ciergues

The following time we stopped at each cluster, got out of the car and snooped around, again without result. No trace of a church to be found. At the last cluster we managed to park on a side road, and fortunately we bumped into somebody there. We explained what we were looking for, and he referred to a farm on the other side of the road. And though the gates were closed I could take some pictures of building and annexes from the road. Just when I wanted to walk back to the car, someone else appeared from a house, asking what I had been doing there. This sort of social control is (fortunately) still well developed around here. After I had explained what we were looking for he told us that we had been looking at the wrong house.

Picture 5 : the second farm in Ciergues

He knew about an old church, now in use as a barn, located in the middle cluster of houses. It was not the first house there, but the second, and it was on the left hand side from where we were standing. The church was closed during the revolution, and sold to a farmer who turned it into storage space. The man sounded confident and reliable, the story seemed plausible, so off we went again, to the next cluster.
And yes, just visible from the road, we spotted a barn, with buttresses, which could have been an old church.
Consulting our Romanesque guru resulted in the following comment:
"I had a good look at your pictures. There is no clear indication of Romanesque architecture. The wall in picture 5 (right hand side building) gives me a vague connotation. The same applies for picture 8 (right hand side). The buttresses are not Romanesque, but give the impression of a church. In picture 1 I see a sculptured head above the big gate, which gives me the same impression. It could well be that one of those two buildings is a former church, but I could not tell which one of the two."
A picture of the sculptured head can be found at the bottom of this blog.

Picture 8 : the barn at the second farm

This quest led to nothing concrete, but taught us something we already knew: never trust someone blindly who seems to know something; always try to get hold of a second, and if possible of a third opinion. Remark noted!

For a number of pictures of the church in Donzy-le-National, click here.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Church Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Donzy-le-National, 12th century, 3*
Former church (storage space) Saint-? in Ciergues (Donzy-le-National), ?th century, 2*

For our own website, click here.

The sculpted head above the gate (1812)

Profetic words

In the previous blog I moaned about some capitals bricked into a wall of a farm in Cluny we had been unable to find. I closed my blog with the more or less profetic words: " It would not surprise me if the wall has been demolished and that the capitals have disappeared to a museum somewhere...."

The gate and wall we were looking for

A pit bull never let go, and the same goes for me when it comes to seeming hopeless search actions.
I did not have much to go on. We were looking for a wall giving access to the courtyard of a farm "Ferme Sainte-Odile", not far from the "Porte-Sainte-Odile". All information came from three different websites, although they were somehow interlinked. One of the websites even suggested a possible location on a map of Cluny, but it also rated the reliability of this location as extremely low. The spelling of the farm and the gate was also not very reliable, since Saint-Odile was a man, and certainly not a woman (Sainte-Odile).
Cluny is a small town, and we regularly meet well known authorities on several subjects in its streets. People we know include the Mayor of Cluny, the writer of a number of books on local history, and several people involved in organising guided tours and lectures about the history of Cluny. This would not have been the first time that I tackled one of these authorities in the street with a burning question.

Google Earth of St-Odile quarter in Cluny

Suddenly I thought "Why on earth would I wait till I bump into one of them?". It must be possible to find an email address of one of the historians in Cluny, and a search action in my archives brought a brochure to light which had the email address of Jean-Luc Maréchal on it. He lives in an old historical building, and does every so often guided tours, which include a visit to his own house as well. During one of these visits we had bought a brochure, and that was the one I just had found.
An email with my question was quickly dispatched, and after that it was just hoping for an answer.

Could this be IT?

When we came back from doing some shopping, there also was an answer. Not from Maréchal, but from another expert on the subject, Jean-Denis Salvèque, who obviously worked closely together with Maréchal. His words were, freely translated:

"The 'Ferme Saint-Odile' is located approx. 100 m south of the Chapelle Saint-Odile. The capitals have been removed in the fifties, were on display in one of the abbey buildings, and went into storage in 2010."

The Porte Saint-Odile is not far from the chapel, and with these data it did not require magic to locate the farm with the help of Google Earth.

Or was this IT?

And once again we went to Cluny, hoping to find at least the old bit of wall. At the farm we found three different gates, all with stone posts, and all with hedges on both sides of the gate.
But the farm had two access roads, of which one was closed with a low but locked gate. I just was going to take a picture of the farm which was quite far away at the end of the road using my zoom lens,, when the owners of the neighbouring house came back from a walk. After we had explained to them that we were looking for something that had disappeared years ago, they thought at first that I came straight from the loony bin, but once they realised we were seriously looking for something they defrosted. The man had endless stories about the farm, even though he had never heard of these capitals. He knew for example that the farm had been built from stones bought from the demolished church Cluny III around 1800.

This looked more like it...

They had right of way on their neighbour's ground, and they opened the gate for us so that we could at least take some pictures of the gate down the road from nearby. The size of the gate looked quite similar to that of the gate on the black-and-white picture, so we thought we had found what we were looking for.
Until... we got home and sat down to study the pictures we took. The gate we thought was "THE" gate had an open background. The black-and-white photograph clearly showed a roof in the background, with a bit lower a lean-to and to the right a roof of an extension. On one of the pictures we had taken on the other side of the house however we could clearly see a roof, and below it a lean-to. Comparing the two pictures led to the following conclusion:

But this was THE gate!

The original gate and wall had been demolished after the capitals had been saved. Gate and walls were replaced with a new gate, stone posts and a high hedge. The building behind it was still intact, including the lean-to; the extension however had most likely also been demolished.

So my last remark on the previous blog was maybe not spot on, but close enough to boast supernatural tendencies!

For our own website, click here.

Looking for something, but for what?

Cluny is not only famous for its abbey, or for the remains there of. The collection of houses from the Romanesque period is maybe not the biggest, but certainly one of the biggest in France.
The old houses in Cluny had some sort of corridor on the first storey, with richly decorated arcades looking out over the street below.

4 Rue Joséphine Desbois

There are a few of these so called claire-voies still intact, some in the facades of houses, some in museums. This web page gives a nice overview.  On still another site a map of Cluny can be found, showing the locations of Romanesque, Gothic and Romanesque-Gothic houses; besides there is also a mlist of all registered monuments.
On the list of monuments there were a number of matters mentioned I had never heard of, and the map of Romanesque houses showed a number of houses which, as far as I could remember, had nothing spectacularly Romanesque, at least not on the outside.
Since we are in the centre of Cluny at least twice a week (Tuesday and Saturday), it seemed like a good idea, before or after lunch, whichever was most convenient, to look for Romanesque houses with the help of the map and for monuments with the help of the list.
One of the most interesting things we were looking for were the remains of a claire-voie, which belonged to the house on 1-3, Rue de la Chanaise, a house that is regularly mentioned in publications about Romanesque houses in Cluny.

Corner Rue Saint Mayeul and Rue de la Chanaise

However, we could not find anything Romanesque on the wall of 1, Rue de la Chanaise, and no. 3 did not exist (anymore). Whilst looking for something completely different, one day we approached Rue de la Chanaise from the other side, from the Rue Saint-Mayeul. And on the corner of Rue Saint-Mayeul and Rue de la Chanaise we found what we had been looking for on the wrong side of the house!
Our trips in search of Romanesque remains in Cluny have now come to an end, and we have a pretty good idea of what Cluny has to offer when it comes to Romanesque (and other styles) buildings. Obviously not everything ended successfully. Quite a few houses showed nothing Romanesque on the outside; possibly only a few internal walls came from that period. At the location where once stood a Romanesque house, now stands a .... public toilet!

A genuine Romanesque public toilet!

Only one thing remained. Eduard van Boxtel, my Romanesque guru, knew of an old farm near the porte Saint-Odile. The cour of this farm had a wall around it, and this wall had two capitals "bricked" in that once belonged in Cluny III. He could even produce a black-and-white picture of this wall, so that I knew what to look for. One day we went to the porte Saint-Odile, but wherever we looked, we could not find a farm, let alone a wall with capitals. However, there are two new schools near the gate, and it would not surprise me if the wall has been demolished and that the capitals have disappeared to a museum somewhere....

The picture below was taken from this web page.

For a number of highlights from the Romanesque period in Cluny, click here.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Maisons romanes in Cluny, 12th century, 4*


For our own website, click here.

Ferme Saint-Odile

A key to solve the mistery

As a continuation of a previous blog about the same subject, we found out quite quickly through our connections with the Office de Tourisme who held the keys to the chapel or church in the cemetery in Saint-Gengoux. That happened to be Monsieur Gérard Mignot, a local amateur historian, who organises guided tours around the town and who wrote several publications on the history of Saint-Gengoux.

The altar

When we phoned him, we had made an appointment in no time, and a couple of days later we picked Gérard up at the OT and drove off to the cemetery. Once inside it, the church was a bit disappointing. There were two gravestones, one with some inscriptions (in my opinion in Gothic print), an old altar, and the few bits of stonework that were visible did not show anything interesting. Gérard had his doubts about this being the very first church of Saint-Gengoux. He thinks that this once was a church outside the town walls belonging to a leper colony. The original church was more likely located near where the "new" church was built. Again according to Mignot this church was originally dedicated to Sainte-Madeleine or Sainte-Magdalène, who was very popular with lepers. The remaining bit of the church could have been the end chapel of this church, dedicated to the Holy Virgin, whilst one of the transept chapels (both demolished) was dedicated to Saint-Joseph.

Baptismal font in the town hall of Saint-Gengoux

The church was broken down in 1806 and the stones were distributed among the Jouvenceaux (the name of the inhabitants of Saint-Gengoux). In return they had to close the west side of the chapel with a wall, and make a window in the south wall. The altar was replaced from the choir to the chapel, and the baptismal font serves nowadays as a flower pot in the town hall.
 Eduard van Boxtel, who acts as an arbitrator in these matters, thought the whole story in combination with the pictures disturbing enough to take the church off his list of Romanesque churches in Saône-et-Loire. We, on the other hand, have again learned something new and interesting about our fascinating region!

For all my pictures of this church, click here. 

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former chapel or church Saint-Gengoul in Saint-Gengoux-le-National, 10th (?) century, 0*
As explained above, this information is most likely null and void.

For our own website, click here.

Spelling rules

Not only Dutch people have problems with spelling rules, certainly when it comes to conjugating verbs. Conjugated forms of verbs, ending on t, d, or worst, on dt, are a nightmare for many a Dutch child, because there is no difference in pronunciation.
The French have the same problem, albeit as far as I know not with conjugated verbs. One of our clients lives in Rimont, and around this hamlet (part of the commune of Fley) one sees signs pointing to Rimont or Rimond, and even official bodies like the Cadastre (land registry) use Rimont or Rimond at random.

The chapel in Rimont

I stick to Rimont, a stronghold of Roman Catholicism. Recently the monastery of Rimont made the local headlines in connection with child abuse by the clergy. Obviously the Brethren and Sisters of Rimont are pulling their weight when it comes to scandals within the church.
Apart from the buildings of the Frères de Saint Jean and the Soeurs contemplatives en Apostoliques de Saint Jean there is not much going on in Rimont, other than a burst radiator with a client of ours. Until I found out that there was a Romanesque chapel in Rimont, through le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne. It appears that the Sisters (this time the Apostolical Sisters of Saint-John) are using an old chapel for their vespers and lauds, although they celebrate mass in the big chapel of the Brethren.
The chapel was closed; however, from the outside it was certainly a pretty little chapel.
A suggestion : maybe, if the Brethren and Sisters are still allowed to teach, they could concentrate a bit more on the correct spelling of place names....

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Chapel Saint-Pierre in Rimont (Fley), 12th century, 0*

For our own website, click here.

The chapel in Rimont

Looking for Mr. Plumber

We are organising all sort of things for people owning a second house, and one of the most popular requests is whether we can organise a plumber, certainly after a long and severe frost period, when water pipes or toilet bowls have been burst.

The chapel in Saint-Martin-de-Croix

The plumber we are normally using lived in Bonnay, and one day, when we needed him and he did not pick up his phone, we decided to look him up personally. When we arrived at his house, it looked like he had moved out. His shutters were closed, his letterbox was open and hung half demolished of the wall, in a word, it looked like a wreck. We went to the only bar in Bonnay, and found out that our Monsieur K. had moved to Burnand. Well, villages are small (so we thought), hence it could not be difficult to find our plumber there.
Well, uhmmm, no. After having inspected all letterboxes in Burnand, there was still no trace of Monsieur K.

De bell-gable of the chapel in Saint-Martin-de-Croix

So we went back to MI5 in Bonnay, and the pub owner gave us Monsieur K.'s new telephone number. We also found out that Monsieur K. had not moved to Burnand itself, but to a little hamlet called Saint-Martin-de-Croix. Monsieur K. explained where his house was, and the next day we went over to Saint-Martin-de-Croix to meet up with him.
His house was on the main street, not far from the local chapel, and after having arranged for a visit to one of our clients we nipped into the chapel. It resembled very much the one in the previous blog, rectangular in plan, simple, and with a bell tower à la Provence. On le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne the patron saint of the church is not mentioned, hence unknown.
I would propose to appoint one, e.g. Sint-Guilielmus or Sint-Vincentius. They are in any case the patron saints of plumbers....

For some more photos of the chapel, click here.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Chapel (most likely Saint-Martin) in Saint-Martin-de-Croix (Burnand), 12th century, 2*

For our own website, click here.

Interior of the chapel in Saint-Martin-de-Croix

Kiling two birds with one stone

The first time we ever heard of Saint-Forgeuil (in the commune of Bresse-sur-Grosne) was through two of our our gîte guests, fanatic cyclists, who made long trips along the Voie Verte and the signposted "boucles" in this area.

The church of Saint-Forgeuil

One fine day they returned from one of their trips, all flustered, because they had found another tuilerie, not far from here, in the hamlet of Saint-Forgeuil. We knew most of the tuileries around here, but this one was new to us. The owner happened to be a Belgian, also interested in industrial archaeology, who happened to know about even more brick factories in the area of which we were not aware. On le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne I found reference to a Romanesque church dedicated to Saint-Ferréol, reason enough to revisit Saint-Forgeuil.
The church was a tiny rectangular building, with a bell gable not dissimilar to those one sees often in Provence. It was impossible to walk around the church, because there was a house on either side of the church, and the space between house and church was closed with a gate; hence it was impossible to make a nice overall picture of the church.
Despite this, we could add another interesting church to our list of visited churches.
In front of the altar lies a tombstone, on which the writing is illegible. Legend has it that it covers the tomb of a bishop; more likely it is the tombstone of the last Dame of Brancion, Fauquette de l'Épervière.
For some more pictures of the church, click here.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Church Saint-Ferréol in Saint-Forgeuil (Bresse-sur-Grosne), ?th century, 0*

For our own website, click here.

Interior of the church of Saint-Forgeuil

The threshold village

The village of Sercy is better known with us as the threshold village.

Château in Sercy

The first thing one sees when one enters the village is a speed reduction sign of 30 km/h, and that sign certainly is very useful. If you even dream of crossing the many speed ramps in the village at 32 km/h, afterwards you can drive straight away (if at all possible) to the nearest garage to have new shock absorbers fitted.
Reducing speed here has another advantage; from the through going road one has a stunning view of the Sercy castle. The castle is located next to the church, reason why I thought that reference to the castle chapel on le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne was referring to this church. However, the first stone for this church was laid in 1846, so it simply could not be very Romanesque.

The castle chapel in Sercy

Eduard however knew, that next to the castle there stood another, Romanesque chapel. And even though the château is privately owned, the grounds around it are open to the public, the medieval kitchen of the castle at ground level can be visited, and the chapel is also accessible. Until the new church was built, the chapel acted as the local parish church.
Unfortunately the original arcade acting as bell tower has disappeared.
The interior of the chapel is very gaudy, and though I do not know from which period these decorations are, they do not seem Romanesque to me. From other churches with similar decorations, for which the year is given on the information panels, I would say that the interior was (re-)decorated in the 19th century.
However, I will happily accept a better opinion!

For more pictures of château and chapel, click here.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former chapel Saint-? (castle chapel) in Sercy, 12th century, 2*

For our own website, click here.

The castle chapel in Sercy - interior

Near by

Of course it is fun to know something about a subject an expert on this subject does not know. On the other hand, this is not so spectacular when realising that the field of expertise covers a huge area (in this case all Romanesque churches in Burgundy) and knowing that the "church" in question is built against a village hall in Cormatin, hidden away on the knoll Saint-Roch at the edge of the village.

Interior of the chapel Saint-Roch - Cormatin

Because we are quite involved in all sorts of volunteer work in Cormatin, we regularly have to be in the village hall Saint-Roch. The hall is used for all sorts of festivities, such as the yearly dinner for the old age pensioners, the yearly bingo, the start of the yearly walks around Cormatin, etc. Tables have to be arranged and laid, chairs have to be set up, in a word, there is a lot to be done throughout the year. Tables and chairs are stored in a separate room. Only after all chairs and tables have been taken out, it becomes clear that the room is semicircular, and that it resembles a chapel. And that is what it once was, a chapel belonging to an old leper colony.
Anyway, this proves that shifting tables and chairs can be instructive!

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former chapel (storage space) Saint-Roch in Cormatin, 12th century, 1*

For our own website, click here.

Exterior of the chapel Saint-Roch - Cormatin