Bourgogne romane: Saint-Martin chapel in Semur-en-Brionnais
The church of Saint-Hilaire, which we visited over the last few days, and the one dedicated to Saint Martin which we begin visiting today, are located in the same village of Semur-en-Brionnais in southern Burgundy, but they couldn’t be more different.
Saint-Hilaire stands on the hilltop, near what remains of the castle of the barons of Semur, in the center of the village that refocused and grew around it. Saint-Martin sleeps peacefully, almost forgotten in a quiet vale at the foot of the castle hill. Saint-Hilaire is a masterpiece by masters dispatched from Cluny and instructed to “play villager”; Saint-Martin is as genuine as can be. Saint-Hilaire does its world-class expert best to look humble and village-y; Saint-Martin is honestly humble and haphazardly built by unskilled but worshiping hands. Saint-Hilaire was the last Romanesque church ever built in Brionnais, completed near 1200 at the cusp between Romanesque and Gothic; Saint-Martin was built around Year 1000, as the second millennium dawned and France covered itself “in a white mantle of churches”, as the monk Raoul Glaber (“the Beardless”) would later put it: Erat enim instar ac si mundus ipse, excutiendo semet, rejecta vetustate, passim candidam ecclesiarum vestem indueret.
Saint-Martin was the original parish church, built around Year 1000. At that time, the “village” did not exist as a well-organized cluster of houses on the hilltop; it was more a collection of homes randomly established all over the territory, wherever it was most convenient, closest to the fields that fed them, hence the sort of offset location of the church. In this church, Saint Hugues was baptized and came to attend Mass. Even after the Cluny country-fashion masterpiece was built on the hilltop, the humble Saint-Martin remained the parish church. Only when the college was incorporated in 1274 was the seat of the parish transferred “up there”. Then, slowly, Saint-Martin fell into disfavor, but never oblivion.
Architecturally, the church is very simple: one single nave, simple and bare, with one splendid, uniquely original and gorgeous triumphal arch which truly deserves our admiration. An interesting double apse with an off-center bell tower. And most significantly, lovely and quite well preserved alfresco paintings from the Romanesque period, between 1100 and 1200, with some adds-on from the Renaissance (1500s), which shows that, even though the former parish church had been by then demoted to simple chapel status, it was still taken care of for several centuries.
In this photo you can better see how the bell tower was built right next to the nave and up against its southern wall. Such bell towers were not uncommon in early Romanesque churches, I have seen quite a number of examples in Italy, where they still have more of those old churches than we do in France. In fact, they were almost mandatory with roofed (i.e., not vaulted) churches, as their thinner walls would not have supported the weight of a bell tower sitting atop the transept, unless it be very small and stubby, and usually made mostly of wood for lightness.
Unsurprising this bell tower might be, yet the big surprise comes from the lovely, tiny little semi-circular apse that the builders saw fit to add at its foot. That is certainly much more unusual. As a matter of fact, I think it is the first time I see such a layout!
Bourgogne romane: Saint-Martin chapel in Semur-en-Brionnais
The church of Saint-Hilaire, which we visited over the last few days, and the one dedicated to Saint Martin which we begin visiting today, are located in the same village of Semur-en-Brionnais in southern Burgundy, but they couldn’t be more different.
Saint-Hilaire stands on the hilltop, near what remains of the castle of the barons of Semur, in the center of the village that refocused and grew around it. Saint-Martin sleeps peacefully, almost forgotten in a quiet vale at the foot of the castle hill. Saint-Hilaire is a masterpiece by masters dispatched from Cluny and instructed to “play villager”; Saint-Martin is as genuine as can be. Saint-Hilaire does its world-class expert best to look humble and village-y; Saint-Martin is honestly humble and haphazardly built by unskilled but worshiping hands. Saint-Hilaire was the last Romanesque church ever built in Brionnais, completed near 1200 at the cusp between Romanesque and Gothic; Saint-Martin was built around Year 1000, as the second millennium dawned and France covered itself “in a white mantle of churches”, as the monk Raoul Glaber (“the Beardless”) would later put it: Erat enim instar ac si mundus ipse, excutiendo semet, rejecta vetustate, passim candidam ecclesiarum vestem indueret.
Saint-Martin was the original parish church, built around Year 1000. At that time, the “village” did not exist as a well-organized cluster of houses on the hilltop; it was more a collection of homes randomly established all over the territory, wherever it was most convenient, closest to the fields that fed them, hence the sort of offset location of the church. In this church, Saint Hugues was baptized and came to attend Mass. Even after the Cluny country-fashion masterpiece was built on the hilltop, the humble Saint-Martin remained the parish church. Only when the college was incorporated in 1274 was the seat of the parish transferred “up there”. Then, slowly, Saint-Martin fell into disfavor, but never oblivion.
Architecturally, the church is very simple: one single nave, simple and bare, with one splendid, uniquely original and gorgeous triumphal arch which truly deserves our admiration. An interesting double apse with an off-center bell tower. And most significantly, lovely and quite well preserved alfresco paintings from the Romanesque period, between 1100 and 1200, with some adds-on from the Renaissance (1500s), which shows that, even though the former parish church had been by then demoted to simple chapel status, it was still taken care of for several centuries.
In this photo you can better see how the bell tower was built right next to the nave and up against its southern wall. Such bell towers were not uncommon in early Romanesque churches, I have seen quite a number of examples in Italy, where they still have more of those old churches than we do in France. In fact, they were almost mandatory with roofed (i.e., not vaulted) churches, as their thinner walls would not have supported the weight of a bell tower sitting atop the transept, unless it be very small and stubby, and usually made mostly of wood for lightness.
Unsurprising this bell tower might be, yet the big surprise comes from the lovely, tiny little semi-circular apse that the builders saw fit to add at its foot. That is certainly much more unusual. As a matter of fact, I think it is the first time I see such a layout!