Never give up the first time

North-west of Saint-Gengoux-le-National one can find some villages with interesting churches, such as Saint-Martin-du-Tartre, Genouilly and Germagny. The hamlet Maizeray, near Saint-Martin-du-Tartre, hosts a former church according to Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne. After we had seen the church in Saint-Martin-du-Tartre, and before we carried on with our sightseeing tour it seemed logical to drive through Maizeray in search of that church.

Was this priory the church I was looking for?

Not all hamlets around here are tiny. Some, like this one, are even bigger than the commune they fall under. After a trip along all the roads entering and leaving the village we still had not spotted anything slightly resembling a church. But luck and chance sometimes lend a helping hand. Just when we were about to give up we saw a young man doing some work outside his house. And that is sheer luck, because most of these places are deserted when you want someone. We asked him for a church or the remains there of, and at first instant he referred to the church of saint-Martin-du-Tartre. We told him that we had just seen that one, so he went inside to check with his girl friend.

The oratoire in Maizeray

When he came back he told us that there had been a priory in Maizeray once, and that the remains of that building were owned by the neighbour on the other side of the road. That neighbour was not in, but this guy knew how to enter the premises without breaking and entering through a non-locked gate, and in we went. And that is how we found the remains of an old priory. After I had taken some pictures there, we went off to visit the church of Genouilly, which turned out to be a very interesting one.
When we came home I contacted the webmaster of "Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne", who replied promptly. He did not know what the church looked like, or in what state it was, but he was quite adamant that the church was near the oratoire in the village. He even sent me a photo of this oratoire, which to me looked like a cross between a war memorial and one of those road chapel one sees a lot in Germany. In any case, the priory was not what he was looking for, and that is why I put Maizeray for the time being on hold.

The remains of a church wall?

Not long after this we made another trip along a number of interesting churches in that part of the world, amongst them the ruin of Le Puley, and again we passed through Maizeray. This time we knew what the oratoire looked like, and it turned out to be not difficult to find. Eduard had more or less suggested that a wall which was now part of the oratoire might well have belonged to the church we were looking for. In those instants the boy scout (which I never was!) surfaces, and looking around there the following matters were brought to light.

Cadole or chapel?

1. Behind the semicircular wall there were several traces of rubble, which might well be the remains of a wall.

2. In front of the oratoire there was a cadole (a semicircular agricultural shed, often built in dry stone) as you can find by the dozen in the fields around here. Someone with an overabundance of fantasy could see the remains of a chapel in this thing.

3. Finally we found, near the oratoire some sort of milestone with strange inscriptions. With my ever present fantasy I could recognise the papal keys in the coat of arms of Cluny.

Mile stone? Papal keys?

There was not much more to see there, and after having duly photographed every stone that might have any relevance, we got into the car, left the parking area near the oratoire, and turned into the road leading home. And that is where it happened; from the corner of my eye I spotted a church window in the facade of a house standing at the bottom of the knoll the oratoire was on. I shouted stop, the driver made an emergency stop, and we were able to photograph this Romanesque gem, in able to preserve it for posterity.
The moral of this story : don't give up too easily, at the end of the day it is dogged that does it!

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) : Church Saint-Pierre in Genouilly, 11th century, 3*
Church Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption in Germagny, 12th century, 3*
Former abbey (Maison Chaumont) in Germagny, 12th century, ?*
Former church (ruin) Saint-Christophe in Le Puley, 12th century, 4*
Former church (habitat) Saint-? in Maizeray (Saint-Martin-du-Tartre), ?th century, 0*
Church Saint-Martin in Saint-Martin-du-Tartre, 11th century, 3*

For our own website, click here. 

Found, the former church of Maizeay!

Announcement

Since early August 2013 the original URL to the site "Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne" is no longer valid. In various blogs and on the interactive maps of Romanesque churches in Burgundy I rather abundantly refer to this website; obviously these links do not work anymore either. The problems around that site have been solved; click here to find the new "Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne". The links on my maps have been changed accordingly.

Again, killing two birds with one stone

Pierreclos

Just like the chapel in the previous blog, this one also belongs to a castle. Although not as stunningly located as Berzé-le-Châtel, Pierreclos is certainly worth a visit, and not only for of the castle. The chapel on the castle grounds is a jewel of Romanesque art. The castle lies outside the village, about 1 km south of it.
We had also visited this château previously, years ago. In those days one had to take a guided tour, and a wine tasting was also included in the tour. Even though the caves are beautiful (Pierreclos, like Berzé-le-Châtel grows its own wine), we were not very impressed with their wines. Nowadays (2013) they have a in my opinion a better system. There is no longer a guided tour, and one can choose to buy just an entrance ticket (€ 7.50), just a dégustation (€ 3.00) or a combination (€ 9.00).

The chapel

Needless to say that we went for the first option. Our first port of call was the chapel, which has been decorated from top to bottom in the 19th century. Even though they also painted the Romanesque capitals at the same time, the colour combination of those fits in quite well with the rest of the chapel. The capitals are very interesting, and show a mix of floral, human and animal motifs.
A number of rooms of the castle can be visited; visiting the donjon and the view from there are certainly worth the climb, and also the wine cellars are worth a visit. The arms room has a coat of mail (a replica I assume) that visitors can try on, and only trying to lift the blooming thing almost gave me a slipped disc...

For a number of pictures of Pierreclos, click here

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Former chapel Saint-? (castle chapel) in Pierreclos, 12th century, 3*

For our own website, click here.

Two capitals

A two storey chapel

Berzé-le-Châtel

In this part of Burgundy there are quite a few chapels situated inside a castle or on the castle grounds. An earlier blog was dedicated to Sercy, and although Sercy has an interesting castle, it is no match for that of Berzé-le-Châtel, high towering over the surrounding landscape.
We had seen the château a long time ago, but neither of us remembered having seen the chapel that was mentioned on Le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne. Reason enough to go back one day.

The chapel

Again this château is private property, and there are only a restricted number of spaces to be visited. Despite this the castle is worth the visit, if only for the explanations of how such a castle was operated, for the splendid views and for the beautiful gardens. This time (we had asked this implicitly) the chapel was open. It was originally a chapel with two storeys, but of the stair leading to the top floor only the bottom steps were still intact. And from what I could gather, the top part had been partially destroyed and filled with earth. Unless of course the top storey, under the merlons simply had been a very low room. Originally the lower chapel had no windows.

For those visiting this area, this castle is certainly a must, and besides, the Chapelle des Moines in Berzé-la-Ville with its beautiful frescos is nearby as well. Unfortunately, inside that chapel photographing is not allowed.

To get an impession of both Berzés, click here, here and here.

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) :
Church Notre-Dame-de-la-Purification in Berzé-la-Ville, 11th century, 0*
Former chapel Saint-? (Chapelle des moines) in Berzé-la-Ville, 11th century, 5*
Former chapel Saint-Sébastien (castle chapel) in Berzé-le-Châtel, 10th century, 3*

For our own website, click here.

The chapel, interior

Don't you have anything better to do???

As I did describe in a previous blog, I have been busy for quite a while composing an interactive map of department 71 (Saône-et-Loire), containing all romanesque buildings in this area.

Saône-et-loire (71)

In the mean time however I have extended my action radius to the other departments of Burgundy as well, and although not 100% ready, I now have maps available for the whole of Burgundy. It seemed logical to stick to the set-up of Eduard van Boxtel's website, and that is exactly what I did. And, as usual with these sort of chores, the final product differs quite a bit from the first set-up.

Côte-d'Or (21)

The status at this moment in time:
Saône-et-Loire (71) is ready. Everything that is found on van Boxtel's site can simply be found on this map. The left hand menu gives the place names in alphabetical order. By zooming in or out one can easily see whether there are any more buildings in the vicinity of the place name, and if yes, how interesting they are. For that purpose I used the rating system of van Boxtel. In order not to duplicate blogs I have incorporated the "Instructions for use" of the maps in my "Glossary of romanesque Archirtecture". The link here after gives direct access to the "Instructions for Use for Department 71" (these instructions are however also valid for the remaning departments))

Nièvre (58)

The link to the maps themselves is given below:


Interactive map Saône-et-Loire (71)

Interactive map Côte-d'Or (21)

Interactive map Nièvre (58)

Interactive map Yonne (89)

Yonne (89)

Côte d'Or (21), Nièvre (58) and Yonne (89) are now also completely ready.

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)