Poitou roman: Saint-Hilaire de Melle (last photos)
Melle is a small town of about 6,000 inhabitants in the département of Deux-Sèvres in the old province of Poitou, a few kilometers southwest of Poitiers in France.
I drove there one day during the four days I was based in Poitiers in June 2022 because Melle boasts not one remarkable Romanesque church, but two! Melle is located on the Path to Compostela, more precisely the Via Turonensis which initially began in Tours (as the name indicates), but is today considered to be starting in Paris, and going then through Orléans, Blois, Tours and Poitiers before reaching Melle. As a consequence of this, the first of the two churches in Melle, Saint-Hilaire, is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site since 1998. It is also, of course, a French Historic Landmark, having been listed in 1914.
The church was erected during the first half of the 1100s. It is overall a lean and elegant structure, as the often ungracious buttresses have been replaced along the nave walls by columns and blind arches that absorb the thrust and weight of the vaulting: an extremely clever device!
This last photo of the modern choir “installation” created in 2011 by French artist Mathieu Lehanneur will end our visit to Saint-Hilaire of Melle. This general view will allow you to make your own opinion about whether or not such a modern piece is suitable in a Romanesque church.
Poitou roman: Saint-Hilaire de Melle (last photos)
Melle is a small town of about 6,000 inhabitants in the département of Deux-Sèvres in the old province of Poitou, a few kilometers southwest of Poitiers in France.
I drove there one day during the four days I was based in Poitiers in June 2022 because Melle boasts not one remarkable Romanesque church, but two! Melle is located on the Path to Compostela, more precisely the Via Turonensis which initially began in Tours (as the name indicates), but is today considered to be starting in Paris, and going then through Orléans, Blois, Tours and Poitiers before reaching Melle. As a consequence of this, the first of the two churches in Melle, Saint-Hilaire, is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site since 1998. It is also, of course, a French Historic Landmark, having been listed in 1914.
The church was erected during the first half of the 1100s. It is overall a lean and elegant structure, as the often ungracious buttresses have been replaced along the nave walls by columns and blind arches that absorb the thrust and weight of the vaulting: an extremely clever device!
This last photo of the modern choir “installation” created in 2011 by French artist Mathieu Lehanneur will end our visit to Saint-Hilaire of Melle. This general view will allow you to make your own opinion about whether or not such a modern piece is suitable in a Romanesque church.