Break your head over this

Recently we attended a lecture with the subject “le culte celte des têtes coupées” with as a starting point a few sculpted heads embedded in the walls of the Romanesque church of Santilly.

Santilly

The origins of these sort of sculptures is obscure, and is often attributed to the Celts during the Gallo-Roman period. The lecture was trying to establish a link between these heads and head hunters or “simple” beheadings, from the head hunters in Papua New-Guinea via Indian tribes in South America to Greek and Roman human sacrifices. The whole story had “Chariots of the Gods” by von Däniken written all over it.

Modillons - Saint-Laurent-en-Brionnais

The lecture still left me with the question what is the background of these sort of sculptures. And here I am not talking of the sculpted modillons acting as consoles at the edge of a church roof (e.g. Saint-Laurent-en-Brionnais). They sometimes show different, often grotesque heads, but also depict animals, geometric patterns, etc. These sort of decorations do not seem to be illogical when a sculptor wants to decorate relatively small pieces of stone.
Another example is the tympanum of the church in Ormes. That is, again according certain sources, a remnant of Gallo-Roman (in origin Celtic) devotion, which existed for quite some time parallel to Christianity, certainly in the French country side.

Sucellus - Ormes

This head is supposed to be the god Sucellus, the god with the mallet. And for an agnostic contemplator there is not much difference between a Majestas Domini on a tympanum and a God with a mallet.
I am actually more intrigued by the solitary heads, seemingly without any logic attached to the walls of churches or bell towers. An interesting example can be seen on the bell tower of the church in Saint-Gengoux-le-National.
One can find them on a relatively big number of Romanesque churches in Saône-et-Loire. He who can explain their origin and background, let him speak up….

Saint-Gengoux-le-National

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

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.

I wouldn't be seen dead there

One day I discovered on le site sur l'Art Roman en Bourgogne that there were two churches in the capital of our canton Saint-Gengoux-le-National, one church with 3 star status dedicated to Saint-Gengoult, and another, former church with 1 / 2 star status dedicated to Saint-Gengoul.

The "new"church of Saint-Gengoux

A question was emailed to Eduard, and the answer arrived promptly. It said:

"Saint Gengoux, indeed two monuments. The first is the well known church, which has its own page on my site. The second one is unknown; there are remains of a 10th century predecessor of the other church, in the cemetery. I don't have any pictures of that one, do you know it?"

I am always in for a little treasure hunt. Saint-Gengoux is the place where we buy our wine from the pump, where we are actively involved in the Office de Tourisme, in a word, we come there quite often.

Medieval facade in Saint-Gengoux

On top of that, the town boast a nice small medieval centre, and it is unrivalled as a tong twister with our camping and gîte guests. Most people don't come much further than "Saint-Jen-Joo-mumble-mumble..." The J is pronounced as in John. Absolute champions are two regular campers; For them Saint-Joo is more than sufficient. It is quite obvious : we have a soft spot for Sen-Jean-Goo.
One day, it was dry, but there was a threat of rain, we went to Saint-Gengoux and entered the graveyard there. In the middle of it, amongst the gravestones stood a little building, which could well be a small part of a possible church. The door was locked, but I managed to take some pictures of the outside before the clouds opened.
Eduards answer came in promptly:

"Wow, that was quick! So the chapel exist, this must be it. However, I do not see any Romanesque traces on the outside, so maybe we should doubt the possibility that the church was built in the 10th century. Or would there be traces on the inside?". Talking of Unemployment Relief Works!

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*
Was taken off the website, for reasons explained in a later blog (to be published).

For our own website click here. 

The choir of the original church of Saint-Gengoux