Poetic license

Altaar - Avenas (69)

During our many visits to Romanesque churches I usually pay a lot of attention to the architectural details (columns, capitals, arches), but relatively little to religious paraphernalia in that church (altars, baptismal fonts, statues of saints).

Madonna met kind -
Saint-Huruge

Of course there are some exceptions, such as churches with an extremely beautiful altar (e.g. in Avenas, 69) or with a statue of a saint which is dating back a thousand years or so (such as in Saint-Huruge, 71).
However, it pays off to keep your eyes open also when the paraphernalia are not that old. And I am not referring to the aesthetic value of some statues, but to deviations from the “norm”.
I had never realised that there was such a norm where statues of saints are involved, but thinking about it it seems logical. Church goers were, certainly in a distant past, illiterate, and no matter how often you scribble St-Peter under a statue, the fact that this guy carries one or more keys identifies him better than words could do.

Sint-Agathe (Wikipedia)

Hence each saint has his or her own protocol: Saint-James the Greater always carries some pilgrim’s scallops with him, Saint-Denis of Paris walks around with his head in his hands, Saint-Agatha carries her cut-off breasts around on a platter at the same time holding an olive branch, Saint-Fiacre has a spade in his hands, etc. Every saint has his own image, and whether you order a statue from Paris, Lyon or Marseille, it will always look roughly the same.

Sint-Agatha - Jambles

But not each statue comes from a factory. Some are produced by the local sculptor, wood cutter or artisan, and they can allow themselves some poetic licences.
In the church in Jambles we encountered a statue of Saint-Agatha, still in the possession of both her breasts and carrying a cross instead of an olive branch.






In the same church we found a rather plastic depiction of the Holy Trinity….

Heilige Drie-eenheid - Jambles

Saint-Fiacre
(foto Christophe
Finot - Wikipedia)

In Sassangy we bumped into Saint-Fiacre. The guy looked relatively modern, and was not only carrying his spade but also a watering can. Not being very well versed in recognising Roman-Catholic saints, I thought they had accidentally purchased a statue of Alan Titmarsh instead of one of the patron saint of gardeners…

Saint-Fiacre - Sassangy

The link to the website of La Tuilerie de Chazelle can be found here.

The Beaujolais revisited

The last time we were in the Beaujolais was not just to visit some Romanesque churches; we were also on a pilgrimage to Clochemerle. And because the ability of a human being to absorb Romanesque churches is indeed limited, we decided to leave the remaining churches worth a visit in the area for what they were, and simply return some other time.
So on a fine day we packed the car and drove again to the Beaujolais area. The first port of call was Beaujeu, the "capital" of the Beaujolais. The travel guide indicated that the bell tower of the Saint-Nicoals in Beaujeu (1130) was something special, and that certainly turned out to be true.

Clocher - Beaujeu

From Beaujeu we continued our quest to the north, with Avenas as the first stop after Beaujeu. The old roman road connecting Autun with Lyon runs throug this picturesque village, which has a 12th century church, the Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption. The church itself is interesting, but what makes it really worth the detour is the white limestone altar. The front shows Christ, seated in a mandorla with on the four corners the tetramorph.
On each side of the mandorla 6 apostles are shown seated. The sides of the altar show scenes from the life of Mary (left hand side) and a depiction of the donor (right hand side), possibly King Louis VII, although the inscription at the bottom does not mention him.

Altar - Avenas

The last two churches, those of Ouroux and Saint-Mamert are not even mentioned in my Michelin guide, hence I cannot say much more about them than that these are nice churches.
The Saint-Antoine in Ouroux has some interesting arcatures in the apse. The original nave seems to have been replaced by a new one.

Arcature - Ouroux

The Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Saint-Mamert preserves, with the exception of the nave, its original state. The old nave was wider, which is obvious when one considers one of the bricked-up passages berrichons. I found a brochure in the church about its history, hence the accurate information about the date of construction.

Passage berrichon - Saint-Mamert

An overview of a number of churches in the Beaujolais is given on this map.

And again we managed to do it, during this second trip through the area: driving through lush vineyards, and returning home without having drunk even one sip of Beaujolais wine!

For our own website, click here.