Slow and steady wins the race

Eduard van Boxtel, the moving spirit behind Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne manages a database with buildings that are or might be Romanesque, but not all these building can be found on his website.

Is that tiny window high up a maybe a church window?

Entries in his database marked with a question mark do not appear on his site unless the question mark is replaced by a positve "yes, this is Romanesque", or "yes, this building really exists". Concerning a remark about Romanesque churches within our Postal Code area (71460, 34 communes, hence a multiple of 34 hamlets), I received an email from which I quote:

"Confrançon is also a question mark. I do not have a picture, but it has been described in the list of Alain Guerreau which I passed on to you earlier. He says :'it is a chapel comparable to Ougy, Chapelle', but I can't believe that. It is possibly a former church, now habitat. Maybe you can do something with this information?"

No, not really. We often drive through this hamlet, but we had never spotted anything church like. One day we drove through there slower than usual, and turned into the few side streets there are. At the edge of the village we saw a man and asked him whether he knew anything about a church in Cortevaix, but he referred us to the church in the commune of Cortevaix. We reported defeat to van Boxtel, and that was it. We thought...

Or maybe this one?

Until I was looking on the internet, in search of a completely different church. There I stumbled on the site Observatoire du Patrimoine Religieux, which mentioned quite a few churches of which the only entry I knew of came from van Boxtel. And Confrançon was mentioned here as well, making it more likely that we simply had missed this church.
And again, one fine day we drove through Confrançon, but this time we parked the car there and systematically walked down every street and alley in the village. The satellite picture shows that Confrançon may be small, but also that is has quite a few buildings. Extra difficulty was that OPR described the status of the church as a ruin, and that van Boxtel could not produce any other leads than he already had done. So we marched through the village, peeking over garden walls, avoiding barking and possibly biting dogs, hoping to find a heap of rubble, or even better, a few walls with at least some window openings....

The former church of Confrançon

We had investigated all the gardens and buildings in Confrançon, except for the last couple of houses along the D14 direction Cortevaix, when Sue literally at the one but last house in the top of the gable spotted a small window with what could well be a statue of the Virgin Mary, and when I, coming from the other side in the other gable spotted a bigger window opening with a round arch and a square window. Had we struck gold?
When I looked at the facade Sue had found, I saw another big door opening, also with a round arch. And while I was taking pictures, the owner came out, asking what we were looking for. She was curious and possibly a bit worried as well. However, when we told her that we were looking for the church of Confrançon, she confirmed that this was the former church. She had bought half the church, her neighbour owned the other half. She also told us that the old church bell was now displayed in the church of Cortevaix.
Who would still like to deny that slow and steady wins the race?

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former church (habitat) Saint-? in Confrançon (Cortevaix), 12th century, 0*

For our own website, click here.

The bell of Confrançon in the church of Cortevaix

A chance hit

After having been to a food fair (I must say, it sounds better in French: Marché des Plaisirs Gourmands) in Mâcon we decided to visit a church in that corner; indeed the church (not) described two blogs ago, the Saint-Denis in Saint-Maurice-de-Satonnay. It was going to be the first but certainly not the last time we found that door closed.

De Chapelle Sait-Benoît in Les Renauds

Between Mâcon and Saint-Maurice-de-Satonnay we drove through the hamlet Les Renauds in the commune of Charbonnières, near Mâcon's golf court.
In this village we found, along the road side, a residence of which one half still strongly resembled a church or chapel.
This happened to be, and I quote Wikipedia, maybe not the oldest, but certainly one of the oldest still existing Romanesque chapels in Burgundy, dedicated to Saint-Benoît. Wikipedia mentions the year 960, just after the construction of Cluny abbey.
The chapel has a bell-gable like one sees often in the south of France, a clocher à peigne.
During this trip we did not find what we were looking for, but at least we had found something else, and something unexpected.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former chapel (habitat) Saint-Benoît in Les Renauds (Charbonnnières), 10th century, 0*

For our own website, click here.

De clocher à peigne

A fortress within a fortress

When you are the owner of a registered monument, you have the obligation to open your property to the public. You are however, allowed to ask for an entrance fee, and you are more or less free to determine the opening dates and times.

Château and chapelle

For example, the remains of the oldest existing church in Cluny, the Saint-Odilon, are inside someone's residence. In the past, the owner possibly had applied for a subsidy for a restauration, and opens her entrance hall, where a few columns, capitals and arches can be seen, to the public on the two European Heritage Days per year, at a modest entrance fee of 1 or 2 € per person.
In La Chapelle-de-Bragny the castle is privately owned, and within the castle walls one finds a fortified chapel. The set-up is not dissimilar to that of Bezorney (see previous blog). La Chapelle-de-Bragny also once was a doyenné of the abbey of Cluny.
This château has very restricted opening periods. Château as well as church or chapel are open in the afternoon from 1-14 July and from 1-30 September, at a fee of 4 € per person.

The chapel

In my innocence I assumed that the village was named after the chapel, but that is not the case. The Lords of Bragny had as a family name de la Chapelle, and that is where the place name comes from. The church is a beautiful example of early Romanesque architecture. Most likely the church, of which only the apse still stands, was built by a Lombard master builder.
Characteristic are the Lombard bands inside and outside, and the "frise de dents d'engrenage" (saw tooth frieze, my own translation).
During the middle ages there were quite some conflicts between the various Lords, such as the Lords de la Chapelle and the Lords d'Huxelles-Brancion, and in that period the church was fortified to protect the villagers once the Lords were feuding again.

Lombard band and saw tooth frieze

Anyway, our local paper (Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire) publishes every Friday a supplement with all the exhibitions, festivities etc. in the area for the coming week. Ironically this supplement is called Samedi & Cie, dating back to the time when it was indeed published on Saturday. We buy the newspaper every Friday, and that is the reason I found out when the chapel and castle were temporarily opened to the public.
And I certainly did not regret heeding that call!

For a few more pictures of castle and chapel, click here.


Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former chapel Saint-? (castle chapel) in La Chapelle-de-Bragny, 11th century, 3*

For our own website, click here.

A doyenné

Since I have discovered that our village Chazelle once was a doyenné belonging to Cluny I have been trying to figure out what exectly a doyonné is. The dictionary simply gives the word "deanery". Wikipedia is a bit clearer.

The tower and deanery of the doyenné in Bezornay

A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of a Dean. It appears that a doyenné consists of a number of parishes.
I also found out that around Cluny there had been a disproportional number of deaneries. To mention a few : Saint-Hippolyte, Bezornay, Jalogny, Chazelle, Mazille... They are all within a circle with a radius of 15 km.
Of course Wikipedia is not the only source of knowledge, and reading a book about Cluny, I stumbled upon a different and more logical definition of a doyenné: a doyenné is an agricultural unit, providing an abbey with agricultural products. According to this definition the big number of deaneries around Cluny seems all of a sudden very plausible and logical.
In the hamlet of Bezornay, near Saint-Vincent-des-Prés, is such a doyenné. We had visited the building in the past, but we had not found much more than a piece of defence wall with a tower and a gate, and at the gate a sign "No entry, work in progress". From the entrance the recesses for a drawbridge were clearly visible.

the crenellated wall

When we came here for the second time there was nobody around, so I peeked in through the gate. I noticed a crenellated wall, and within the walls stood a house. In order to have a look at the house itself I did not have trespass or to break any laws; when I walked down the path along the property I had a clear view of the house and former chapel. The chapel had on the outside a rather strange extension; an apse in the shape of a "demi-cône renversée" (reversed semi-cone).
This type of construction had been employed in the past inside Cluny III, and in the church of Semur-en-Brionnais something similar can still be seen. I do not make this up; my knowledge comes straight away from Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne. This site, by the way, also has a very handy glossary of terms used in Romanesque architecture, of which I have made an illustrated English translation.

The apse of the chapel with two storeys

With some pride I can announce, that not only my pictures have been added to the aforementioned site, but also that the definition of doyenné has been slightly changed to reflect the agricultural meaning of the word.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former chapel (habitat) Saint-Pierre in Bezornay (Saint-Vincent-des-Prés), 11th century, 3*

For our own website, click here.

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!

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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*


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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.

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