La Charité: the grandest Cluniac priory that ever was (last photos)
Today we conclude our visit of the Benedictine priory of Notre-Dame de La Charité. Tomorrow, we will drive to the nearby city of Nevers for another visit.
The priory was founded in 1052 by a monk from Cluny named Gérard, on land gifted by the count of Nevers (we will soon visit that city, too). In 1135, the finished Romanesque church was nothing but the second largest church in Christendom, after Cluny’s major ecclesia itself. Thus, it was dubbed “Cluny’s elder daughter”.
Further to destructions and a great fire in 1559, the church was never fully rebuilt, but nevertheless substantially remodeled in the 17th century. Not much of what’s left is Romanesque, but what is is grandiose and magnificent, as we will see.
La Charité has been one of the major restoration sites in Burgundy since 2001, and the main problem affecting the church today is the imperfect roofing. Humidity pervades through it and contaminates the timber, the walls and even some floors, as you will see in some of the photos I will upload. The Fondation du Patrimoine, for which I work as a pro bono photographer, is helping fund the required restoration works and these photos will be used to document the project and also help collect funds donated by the public.
Listed as a Historic Landmark on the very first list of 1840 (Prosper Mérimée visited it in 1834), it is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, as it is located on the Via Lemovicensis, the path to Compostela originating in Vézelay and going through the large city of Limoges, hence its name.
One last view of the apse, which I framed in an effort to hide both the ugly Gothic axial chapel on the left, and the 18th century priory outbuildings on the right.
Here you have an “as good as can be” look at the original Cluniac church with, in succession and from closest to farthest, the radiating chapels, the ambulatory, the choir, the transept arm and the bell tower and, in the back, the tip of the Holy Cross Tower which used to be one of the two bell towers that framed the Romanesque western façade, back in the day... From that viewpoint, you can almost forget that the great nave of La Charité is no more.
La Charité: the grandest Cluniac priory that ever was (last photos)
Today we conclude our visit of the Benedictine priory of Notre-Dame de La Charité. Tomorrow, we will drive to the nearby city of Nevers for another visit.
The priory was founded in 1052 by a monk from Cluny named Gérard, on land gifted by the count of Nevers (we will soon visit that city, too). In 1135, the finished Romanesque church was nothing but the second largest church in Christendom, after Cluny’s major ecclesia itself. Thus, it was dubbed “Cluny’s elder daughter”.
Further to destructions and a great fire in 1559, the church was never fully rebuilt, but nevertheless substantially remodeled in the 17th century. Not much of what’s left is Romanesque, but what is is grandiose and magnificent, as we will see.
La Charité has been one of the major restoration sites in Burgundy since 2001, and the main problem affecting the church today is the imperfect roofing. Humidity pervades through it and contaminates the timber, the walls and even some floors, as you will see in some of the photos I will upload. The Fondation du Patrimoine, for which I work as a pro bono photographer, is helping fund the required restoration works and these photos will be used to document the project and also help collect funds donated by the public.
Listed as a Historic Landmark on the very first list of 1840 (Prosper Mérimée visited it in 1834), it is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, as it is located on the Via Lemovicensis, the path to Compostela originating in Vézelay and going through the large city of Limoges, hence its name.
One last view of the apse, which I framed in an effort to hide both the ugly Gothic axial chapel on the left, and the 18th century priory outbuildings on the right.
Here you have an “as good as can be” look at the original Cluniac church with, in succession and from closest to farthest, the radiating chapels, the ambulatory, the choir, the transept arm and the bell tower and, in the back, the tip of the Holy Cross Tower which used to be one of the two bell towers that framed the Romanesque western façade, back in the day... From that viewpoint, you can almost forget that the great nave of La Charité is no more.