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

Why not still another blog?

Quite some time ago I stumbled upon a website about Romanesque architecture in Burgundy, le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne, which is a subject I am certainly interested in. This site (in French) suggested that it was an inventory of every Romanesque church in Burgundy. Please note the word every!
My first impulse was to look up the church in our own village, Chazelle. Not being hampered by lack of patience I could not find Chazelle, at least not in the alphabetically ordered list of thumbnails of churches, hence I decided to contact the web master of this site. Mr. van Boxtel, a Dutchman running this site answered promptly; below the list of thumbnails were more lists (only text) of churches in this area, and lo and behold, Chazelle was mentioned there. I found soon out that if there was a thumbnail shown on the site, there were more pictures of the church available; was a place only mentioned in the lists there were no pictures available, at least not yet. Obviously then there were no pictures for Chazelle (now there are!).

The church of Chazelle by night

Since that first set of emails I have been in regular contact with Mr. van Boxtel, and we have found consensus with respect to how we could benefit from each other. If I have questions on the subject I can ask him, and in exchange he has by now received all the pictures I have ever taken of Romanesque churches in mainly Saône-et-Loire. So bit by bit my knowledge increases and his site becomes more and more complete. This way everybody is happy!
During our contact, which is still continuing, Mr. van Boxtel posed the question whether I was going to do "anything else" with my own pictures in the future. I had never given that any thought, apart from using some photos in an occasional blog, but his question made me think of writing a blog about the lesser known churches in the area, and mainly the ones which are mentioned on his site, but of which he does not want to (for whatever reason) publish any pictures.
And that is what the next blog posting will be about! 

Practical information (courtesy of Eduard van Boxtel) : 
Church Notre-Dame in Chazelle (Cormatin), 12th century, 3*

For our own website click here.