Pre-Romanesque Languedoc: the chapel of Gléon
After grandiose abbeys and impressive cathedrals, all of them jewels of the Romanesque Heritage in the old southern French provinces of Languedoc and Roussillon, I take you now to visit a very different, albeit not less moving, kind of church: the early Christian chapel of Gléon, built in isolation among the hilly fields of a wine-producing estate in the département of Aude, in the foothills of the Corbières low mountains.
If most opine that this chapel, dedicated either to the Virgin Mary or to Saint Eugenia, no one really knows, was built around Year 800 (the oldest mention of it in writing is from 817), some assess that it is much older indeed, and could have been erected as early as the 500s. It is, in any case, extremely old, at least Carolingian or Wisigothic, and very venerable. It was however not listed as a Historic Landmark until 1984, possibly because it is a private property.
It comprises two very small naves, the main one indisputably pre-Year 1000, and the second one, to the North, substantially remodeled it seems in the 19th century... but unfortunately, it is very difficult to form an opinion today because the walls in that northern nave have been cemented over, as is most of the outside. In the places where it is still visible, the medium to large apparel of the main nave is very impressive.
This is evidence that, at some not too distant point in time, maybe late 19th century, there was a harmonium in this chapel... Today, the ruined instrument lies sadly at the end of the secondary nave.
I said above that this nave had been extensively redone in modern times, and here you can see the concrete floor, a work typical of the 1960s. The plastered walls are utterly “unreadable”, as you can see.
Pre-Romanesque Languedoc: the chapel of Gléon
After grandiose abbeys and impressive cathedrals, all of them jewels of the Romanesque Heritage in the old southern French provinces of Languedoc and Roussillon, I take you now to visit a very different, albeit not less moving, kind of church: the early Christian chapel of Gléon, built in isolation among the hilly fields of a wine-producing estate in the département of Aude, in the foothills of the Corbières low mountains.
If most opine that this chapel, dedicated either to the Virgin Mary or to Saint Eugenia, no one really knows, was built around Year 800 (the oldest mention of it in writing is from 817), some assess that it is much older indeed, and could have been erected as early as the 500s. It is, in any case, extremely old, at least Carolingian or Wisigothic, and very venerable. It was however not listed as a Historic Landmark until 1984, possibly because it is a private property.
It comprises two very small naves, the main one indisputably pre-Year 1000, and the second one, to the North, substantially remodeled it seems in the 19th century... but unfortunately, it is very difficult to form an opinion today because the walls in that northern nave have been cemented over, as is most of the outside. In the places where it is still visible, the medium to large apparel of the main nave is very impressive.
This is evidence that, at some not too distant point in time, maybe late 19th century, there was a harmonium in this chapel... Today, the ruined instrument lies sadly at the end of the secondary nave.
I said above that this nave had been extensively redone in modern times, and here you can see the concrete floor, a work typical of the 1960s. The plastered walls are utterly “unreadable”, as you can see.