Priory of Sainte-Gemme-Wikipedia
The Priory of Sainte-Gemme is a monastery of Saintongeais Romanesque style located in Sainte-Gemme in Saintonge, in the French department of Charente-Maritime in the New Aquitaine region.
Development of the priory and peak [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The Sainte-Gemme site seems occupied from the Neolithic.
Built in the heart of the Baconnais forest, the monastery seems to exist from the middle of XI It is century. The place already seemed to have been put under the term of Sainte-Gemme.
In 1074, he was entrusted to the Benedictines of the Chaise-Dieu by Guillaume VIII, count of Poitiers and Duke of Aquitaine. Three monks are sent there from the chair-chair abbey: Artaud, prior; Théodard, tutor and master; and Robert, recluse. The monastery then benefits from a small pre-Casadian chapel. The priory is rebuilt at the end of XI It is century, when the church goes back, which also experiences work in XII It is century, time of the development of Romanesque art [ first ] .
The successors of Guillaume VIII confirm the possessions of the priory and make new donations until the end of the XII It is century. Guillaume X Y writes a charter. The priory becomes rich thanks to the donations and acquisitions of the salt marshes of the country of Marennes.
At XIII It is A century, the priory of Sainte-Gemm has about twenty monks.
At XIV It is A century, the superior of Sainte-Gem has power characteristics. Indeed, he is one of the notables of the congregation which participates in the great annual chapter of the Chaise-Dieu. He is also lord of the place, having the right of justice. He has authority on a sub-first, a sacristan, eighteen cloisters and probably of the Convers brothers. His powers and his advantages are great: he receives the monks at the monastic profession, he has the right to the pastoral stick and an apartment is reserved for him.
The priory is the victim of the Hundred Years War, and loses income. However, it is transformed: the claustral buildings are reworked and the galleries of the raised cloister.
In 1483, Jacques de Saint-Nectaire became superior of Sainte-Gemme. Elected abbot of the Chaise-Dieu in 1491, he visited the following year the priory and decided to reforms which encountered the opposition of the monks. However, they will give up for fear of a conviction.
A priory victim of conflicts of religions [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
In 1568, Saintonge was at the heart of a conflict between the supporters of the Reformed Church and those of the Catholic Church. The Huguenots seize the priory. The prior takes refuge in Bordeaux. The priory does not come out unscathed: the vaults of the church are pierced, the heart, the transept and the bell tower probably slaughtered.
At XVII It is A century, the returned monks decide to create a wall at the level of the arc between the nave and the crossroads of the transept. Monacal life timidly resumes: the priors no longer live in the monastery and the life of the religious becomes difficult there.
In 1714, Dom Jacques Boyer, traveler scholar of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, described dilapidated places. “” Ruins shoot the tears of the eyes. The cloister still remains. There is a well -vaulted underground chapel, where there is an altar, and around the chapel five or six beautiful sepulcres filled with bones “.
In 1731, the prior persuades the last two monks to leave the priory.
In 1735, Dom Armand Valet, Mauriste religious of Saint-Jean d’Angély, was commissioned by the prior of the Chaise-Dieu to inspect the ruins of Sainte-Gemme. The cloister “One side has been discovered recently and the others in fairly good condition” , the chapter room “Whose pavement has been removed” with below “The attics, whose doors were firm (sic) and in the end of the said cloister is found a mozolée” . He enters “A small door” which “Led at the crossroads of the said church” , where he see “A large altar that still remains, without there being no cover below” . After doing “The outline of the church by the outside” , he notes the dilapidation of the church “Supported by Spais pillars rusing […] and that on all part it is increased in the walls quantity of shrubs, lières and brambles” .
The Revolution: Sale and change of functions [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Within the framework of the requisitions of the property of the clergy as national goods, the priory – his buildings and his land – are sold to Saintes the . François Yvonet, last trustee of the parish; Garnier, first mayor of the town; Jean Choime, farmer from the last prior; are buying.
The old claustral buildings are adapted to their new home and workplace function. The remaining cloister galleries disappear, new windows and doors are dug, the levels modified. Thus, in 1815, the building adjacent to the church was then “Composed of a cellar and bedroom above, a corridor location together, the courtyard in the back where the ancient cloisters and all the old buildings that exist in the said courtyard and the oven has just been built there” were built ” .
Transformations and restorations in contemporary times [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
At the beginning of XIX It is century, the worried church. Amputated with transept and heart from the wars of religion, its vaults are pierced and it is only closed by boards. We then fear his collapse. Three large foothills are established on the western facade. A small bell tower replaces the old bell tower of the transept crossroads. A staircase perpendicular to the facade provides access to the first northern span of the priory.
The XIX It is century is devoted to the repair of the church. Northern foothills are consolidated, and others are added to support the southern facade. In 1844 and 1866, the vaults of the nave and the collaterals were largely reconstructed. The western facade was almost mainly restored between 1869 and 1870. However, the new sculptures carried out did not follow medieval models. A triangular pediment with bell tower is created and a 500 kg cast iron bell replaces the old 200 kg approximately.
At the beginning of XX It is century, the Romanesque bays of the Western facade were reopened. The platform is restored and a neogothic balustrade added.
Buildings around the church are sold and transformed several times. Thus, in 1887 the home was converted into coffee and ballroom, then to grocery store and museum. After the Second World War, the old walls of the buildings were changed: the facade of XII It is century was then pierced with large bays, despite the protests of the architect of historic monuments.
The church is the subject of a classification as a historic monuments from the list of historic monuments of 1862 [ first ] , while the priory himself has been registered since the and a classification since .
The priory church [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The church was built in Romanesque times according to a classic Latin cross plan. She was then 55m long. Today, only the nave remain (three spans, and lined with collaterals), as well as a narthex (or pre-nef) whose presence is unusual in Saintonge [ 2 ] .
From 1079 and during the first half of the XII It is A century, the pre-Casadian church was adapted to use by monks. Thus, a transept is built with a bell tower above the crossroads, and a spiral staircase. Today, only the western wall is visible. The arc surmounted by a bay, which separates the crossroads from the nave is slightly broken. Masonry departures of what could have been a dome are also visible. The bell tower staircase, dating from the beginning of XII It is century was built at the same time as the western wall of the transept. It has an archaic structure, prior to the use of large monoliths.
The nave was built after the transept, the wall is punctuated by four backrests, of which only the narthex kept its column. During the second half of the XII It is century, the initial plan on five spans has been abandoned. The space is shared in two a triple nave of three spans and a narthex surmounted by a platform. The collaterals, semicircular vaulted, are separated from the central vessel. During the second half of the XII It is century, the nave and the western facade are completed thanks to the income of the monks. The monastery now has the capacity to accommodate around twenty monks.
The pre-Casadean church presented a choir, replaced by that of the Romanesque church built during the second half of XII It is century. The latter had significant proportions (18.50 m long and 10 m wide) that can be found through the examples of Geay, Retaud or Rioux, themselves influenced by the Clunisian priory of Saint-Eutrope de Saintes .
A crypt built north of the building during the second half of XII It is century, it seems a funeral function. According to a testimony of 1714, an altar was there. Collapsed and filled with an indefinite era, it was brought to light in 1926, and the observations made in the 1930s made it possible to supplement the description of XVIII It is Century: it was a square, semi-buried square room, about 5.33 m side, covered with a crusader of rectangular section warheads, recalling the ribs of the NEF front. A right staircase allowed access to the crypt from the northern transept. She presented loculi, and monolithic sarcophagi.
At XIII It is A century, a major stone roodle was built.
At XIV It is Century – period of development of Gothic art – the Romanesque apse is replaced by a flat bedside.
The vaults of the remaining nave have been consolidated or rebuilt in the XIX It is century, apart from the vaults of the aisles of the Western gallery.
In 1840, the western facade presented three large foothills that support it, which is why 80% of facings and sculptures were replaced. A gable with bell tower, built on this occasion crowns the whole. Most of the medieval modillions of the western facade are illegible or have disappeared. They gave way to those sculpted during the era of catering, like most of the portal and arcatures decorations, as well as windows of the second level.
Claustral buildings [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The cloister [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The medieval cloister was 15.5 m by 19 m dimensions. Despite the disappearance of his galleries, he is today one of the best preserved in Saintonge [ 3 ] . You could sit on a size stone bench that surrounded the walls and served as a pedestal for the columns supporting the vaults of the galleries.
The Romanesque cloister was characterized by a unit of construction of the cloister galleries, and seems to have been built at the beginning of XII It is century.
The oriental building [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
This disappeared building was attached to the southern transept of the church, and in particular housed the chapter room (or chapter). It initially had a wooden ceiling, above which was the choir monks’ dormitory, in accordance with Benedictine customs. Towards the middle of XIII It is A century, the chapter room is enlarged due to the number of monks and vaulted. It is lowered by approximately 0.75 m and steps have been arranged to access the cloister.
The western building [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The most imposing and now best -preserved building, it has a facade decorated by seven large blind arcs. It had to be built at the start of XII It is century. It was built on two levels. The ground floor was to serve as a cellar. The floor, with many openings, served as a dormitory for the Convers brothers or visitors.
On the southern facade, traces of openings of the XV It is century suggest apartment layout for the prior. Indeed, in 1735, three apartments were mentioned there, including one for the prior.
The southern building [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
According to the Benedictine rule, it housed the refectory with simple architecture, only lit on the southern side.
The redevelopments of XV It is century [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The claustral buildings were potentially redeveloped after the Hundred Years War, and especially to respond to the new lifestyle of the monks, occupying cells serving them as a place of work, prayer and rest.
An additional level is added to the western and northern galleries of the cloister, allowing a circulation serving the new spaces created. A spiral staircase made it possible to access it.
This adaptation had to be contemporary with the embellishments of the southern building. A door of this building characteristic of the second half of the XV It is century presents a lintel decorated with a coat of arms which would seem to be that of the prior Louis de La Fayette (around 1460-1470).
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