Mozac Abbey Church
The former abbey church Saint-Pierre and Saint-Caprais ( French Abbaye Saint-Pierre et Saint-Caprais de Mozac ) is located in the middle of the village Mozac (also Mozat ), a direct suburb west of Riom in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the Puy department -de-Dôme , about twenty kilometers north of Clermont-Ferrand .
Appreciation
Before its extensive decay and improper restoration, one of the most beautiful Romanesque churches in the Auvergne stood here, an extraordinary highlight in the artistic and craftsmanship of the Romanesque builders. Apparently insufficiently stable foundations led to the destruction in the earthquake of the 15th century. Above all, the entire choir was affected, right down to the former crypt , the transept , with the exception of some remains of the wall, and the upper parts of the central nave and the upper floors of the aisles . These components were then completely broken off. From the Romanesque church, the central nave pillars, its arcades , the side aisles including their vaults, parts of the crypt and the ancient tower porch and the "facade" are preserved.
Although the church has suffered great damage, it is still one of the main churches in Basse-Auvergne or Limagne . It owes this not least to the high artistic quality and large number of its capitals . Of the former 48 capitals of the nave , 43 are in situ . Despite the complete destruction of the choir head, some of the choir capitals are still in excellent condition and placed in the central nave at eye level, certainly the most beautiful in the church. In the Musée Lapidaire, in the successor buildings of the former abbey, a further 32 capitals can be viewed, which were reused as bricks in the masonry of the 15th century and were discovered later. They are therefore largely not preserved undamaged.
The Church is St. Consecrated to Simon Peter and Caprasius of Agen.
Mozac or Mozat ?
The name of the village had different spellings over the centuries. The Roman Mauziacum, which means "lying in the middle of water", became Mozac . Later, around the Basse Auvergne from the Latin suffix acum the French at, so Mozat . Today, however, the spelling Mozac predominates. The "c" remains silent when pronounced.
history
Founding of the abbey
The history of the Abbey of Mozac goes back to the end of the Merovingian era. It was founded towards the end of the 7th century (?) By a personality named Calminius (French: Calmin ). He lived under the reign of King Thierry (probably Thierry III. 673-691). He also founded the Laguenne abbeys near Tulle ( Corrèze ) and Monastier-Saint-Chaffre ( Haute-Loire department ). The charter was lost. The earliest documents from the 11th century give evidence of the founding time, in which a Sainte-Namidia is named as a co-founder.
A hagiographer Thomas, who wrote about the life of Saint-Calminius in the seventeenth century, made him Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Auvergne. These titles came much later. Also Namidia, certainly a generous benefactor of the abbey lived not at the same time, much less was his wife.
The story of Calmin's curriculum vitae shares historical truth with the legend :
Calminus came from a family of Roman origin who had settled in Arvernis (today's Clermont-Ferrand). This is probably why he was referred to as the "very distinguished senator of the Romans". At the beginning of his career he was a "man of war" who later turned to the rigor of a religious early Christian life. Obviously he had made considerable fortune, otherwise he would not have been able to put into practice his wish to build three monasteries .
He began building an oratory in the village of Le Villars in mountainous Velay , originally named Calminiacum or Calmery (both from Calminius ). He lived for a while with a small group of his followers in a cave above the village. The monastery, a community of Benedictine coinobites , emerged from the oratory . The monastery was later called "Saint-Chaffre Monastier" . In the French article Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille (The village of the monastery), Saint Calmin founded the monastery as early as the 5th century, which is very doubtful.
Another place of activity was in the diocese of Limoges , where he led the meager life of a hermit . He founded his second monastery, called Laguenne, near Tulle (Corrèze). With that, most of his wish had already come true. According to the “ vox populi ” it was already considered holy .
After that he only lived in Mozac in Auvergne, a place of meditation and tranquility, and rich in water. Already in the reputation of a saint he founded his third and last abbey there. Mozac Abbey grew in prosperity, largely due to the generosity and extraordinary activities of its founder.
Before starting construction in Mozac, Calmin went to Rome to apply for the consecration of his first monastery, Carmery in Velay . On his return trip he visited the famous Lérins Abbey on the Îles de Lérins , which he admired and therefore spent a few more months in it. There he got to know the rules of St. Benedict and accepted the abbot's offer to send about twenty monks to Mozac to help with the construction of the monastery and to support monastery life.
After completion of the building, he left his followers once more to visit the Pope in Rome and tell him about the fulfillment of his wish for life as a result of his foundations. The Pope offered a part of St. Peter's skull as a particularly valuable relic . On the way back he stopped in Agen , where he could get the arm relic of St. Caprais . Both relics led to the naming of the Abbey Saint-Pierre and Saint-Caprais.
The return of Calmin was celebrated with great effort in Mozac. A short time later Calmin died, attached to the "smell of holiness". He was buried in the crypt the day after the Octave of Ascension. The year of his death is unknown.
The reliquary of St. Calmin and St. Namadie, made of enamel des Limousins, is the largest of its kind preserved from the Middle Ages. The relics of the saints for a pilgrimage to the first abbey church.
In the Middle Ages, on a dirt road between Riom and Mozac, there was a chapel called Saint-Calmin, in honor of the founder of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Caprais in their immediate vicinity. The chapel was destroyed long before the revolution . You neither know its architecture nor its exact location.
Transfer of the relics of St. Austremonius
For a long time it was believed that the relics of St. Austremonius, the first evangelist of Auvergne, were transferred to Mozat by order of Philip the Short , the father of Charlemagne , around 764. Before the revolution, you could see two paintings, one of St. Calminius and the other "Pippin the Short", the restorer of Mozac. In reality, however, the relics came to Mozac under Pepin II of Aquitaine (828-848), probably in 848. It then becomes a royal abbey, as demonstrated by the presence of the fleur de lys (lily flower) on the monastery coat of arms. With these relics, Mozat became an important destination in Auvergne for Christian pilgrims long before the streams of St. James pilgrims.
Connection to Cluny
Durand, Bishop of Arvernis and former abbot of La Chaise-Dieu , worried about the easing of monastic discipline that had occurred towards the end of the 11th century, and in 1095 he made Mozac subordinate to the Highness of Cluny , in coordination with Robert, Count of Auvergne and holder of the secular Power over the abbey. Mozac was able to maintain its importance by maintaining the title of abbey. In the same year, Pope Urban II called for the first crusade at the Synod of Clermont . In 1102 Hugo von Semur, a nephew of St. Hugo, became abbot in Mozac. He was later followed by Eustachius von Montboissier, who held the office in 1131 and 1147. He was a brother of the incumbent abbot of Cluny, Petrus Venerabilis .
Network of dependencies
The Bull of Pope Alexander III. from 1165, intended for the Abbot of Mozac, Pierre II. de la Tour, contains the final list of Mozac's possessions: 38 churches, 13 chapters and 14 castles were under his feudal rule. The monks of Mozac received letters to confirm and secure their property in 1169 from Louis VII , 1217 from Philippe Auguste , 1224 from Louis VIII , 1269 from Louis IX. , By Charles VII in 1460 and by Charles VIII in 1490 .
The Mozac Monastery had up to forty priories , parish vicarages and other religious or temporal dependencies, mainly in the Basse-Auvergne, also in the Bourbonnais and along the road to the Abbey of Cluny, on which it had been dependent since 1095. The oldest dependencies of Mozac Abbey came from a royal donation from Pepin the Short or Pepin II of Aquitaine. This first document lists sixteen places that belong to the heritage of the abbey:
In a document from 1633 the dependencies (priories) of the Abbey of Mozac are called "royal foundations".
The Romanesque church and its predecessors
Without taking into account the extensive changes in the 15th century, three church buildings obviously followed one another on the same site:
- Mozac I: The first church goes back to the Merovingian foundation of Calmin towards the end of the 7th century (?). Remains of her exist in the crypt and in the pre-Romanesque tower porch.
- Mozac II: The second corresponds to the renovation of the monastery in the 9th century and the foundations of Pippin of Aquitaine associated with the transfer of the relics of St. Austremonius. It is unclear whether this church had an ambulatory. The western vestibule tower can probably be assigned to Mozac II.
- Mozac III: The third is the actual Romanesque church, which can be dated to shortly after 1095, after the annexation to Cluny, that is essentially in the first half of the 12th century.
The former building of the Romanesque abbey church, around the middle of the 12th century
The architecture of this church largely corresponded to that of other main churches in Basse-Auvergne, apart from the westwork with the Merovingian vestibule tower protruding from the facade. Their size is roughly between the Notre-Dame du Port and Issoire . The outline and elevation probably came closest to those of the Notre-Dame du Port collegiate church .
The church was a three-aisled gallery basilica elevation, with a central nave with barrel vaulting, presumably without belt arches, the side aisles with groined vaults and belt arches and the lofts with half barrel vaults to carry the shear forces of the central nave vault . Some light fell into the gallery through a few small windows, of which hardly anything came through the inner arcatures of the gallery in the central nave. It is possible that the roofs of the ships were slightly offset in height from one another, but did not have an upper balcony .
The transept had arms reaching beyond the side walls of the nave, the eaves height of which corresponded to that of the two-storey aisles. The trumpet dome of the square crossing extended a good bit further up, about to the height of the central nave ridge. The transept arms were divided by walls with candle arches , as an extension of the aisle outer walls . The two sections of space between these walls and the crossing protruded up over the crossing dome and together with the tower base formed the regionally typical " massif barlong ". The octagonal tower towered over it.
The choir head consisted of the central choir with a semicircular apse , almost as high as the central nave, the clearly lower vaulted ambulatory and four radial chapels , supplemented at the sides by two transept chapels. Outwardly, these components were rhythmically graduated from one another. One speaks of the Auvergnatian pyramid .
Mozac on the Way of St. James
The 11th and 12th centuries was the absolute heyday of pilgrimages , especially in the southwest of France in the year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela attracted. Mozac is located on a side route of the Camino de Santiago , on the route between Nevers and today's Clermont-Ferrand, roughly halfway between the main routes of Via Lemovicensis (start in Vézelay ) and Via Podiensis (start in Le Puy-en-Velay ). It was precisely at this time that Mozat III was busy building. It is very likely that Mozat II was broken off in such sections as the sections of the new building were completed and the services could be moved there. Like the other main churches in Limagne, Mozat III was conceived as a typical pilgrimage church with an ambulatory choir and chapels, and as large as it was needed for the increasing stream of pilgrims. After all, important relics had been provided for a long time and could be displayed for veneration in six chapels and on other altars. To the chagrin of the monks, the pilgrimage declined from the middle of the 12th century, beginning with the "bickering" between France and England over Aquitaine. The wars of the 13th and 14th centuries brought a dramatic slump in pilgrimages in the south-west of what is now France, which only revived in our times.
Destruction and restoration in the 2nd half of the 15th century
In 1437, 1476, 1478 and 1490 violent earthquakes shook the area and after 1450 caused severe damage to buildings. The Abbey of Mozac was also largely destroyed. Mainly affected were the choir head including the burial of the crypt passage, the transept with the crossing and the crossing tower, the upper areas of the central nave including the vault, the gallery floors of the side aisles and the cloister with the surrounding convent buildings .
The abbot Raimond von Marsenat (1459-1470) initiated extensive restoration work, on which the current appearance of the church goes back. Today it is lucky that his means must have been quite modest back then. Otherwise he would have built a completely new structure, and the valuable capitals could no longer be admired.
The parts of the abbey church, the monastery and the convent building with the cloister that had been damaged by the earthquake were largely torn down and renewed to the extent that the church service and monastery life could take place again. The renovation was based on the new Gothic style . A choir was erected on the strong walls of the central room of the former crypt, with no access, with a ribbed vault . The collapsed handling of the crypt was filled with collapse rubble. The former radial and transept chapels were omitted and were partially replaced by three chapels in the south aisle. The transept, in its original form, no longer existed. The formerly abandoned crossing with dome and tower was only an extension of the central nave. The side walls of the crossing (north and south) were bricked up except for smaller passages and the transept arms isolated in this way were covered with low ribbed vaults. The central nave was also given a ribbed vault. Since the gallery floors of the aisles were abandoned, the inner arcatures of the galleries have also disappeared. When the masonry was renewed, stone material from the destroyed components was certainly often used, regardless of the sculpted components. The cloister has not been renewed.
The modern
In 1516 the abbey was introduced into the Commende, the appointment of the abbot directly by the king.
June 27, 1783: After a violent storm, a stream of mud flowed through the abbey grounds and led to the partial collapse of a mill in the south of the property and in several places on the defensive walls. As a result of the storm, a large part of the area was flooded and the crops (vineyards, wheat and others) destroyed. In the revolution (1789) and the years that followed, the convent buildings with the cloister, which had largely been preserved up to that point, were declared a "public property" and sold for demolition. In 1790 the last six monks had to leave the monastery. The church soon became the only parish church in the municipality of Mozac.
Today's “cloister courtyard” south of the church is significantly larger than the former cloister and is surrounded by “modern” buildings on the east and south sides, partly also on the west side. The refectory from the 15th century is integrated into them, as is a remnant of a cellar from Roman times. The Musée-Lapidaire is housed in parts of the building , with an important collection of 32 capitals and various inventory of the Romanesque church.
Building dimensions
Dimensions in meters, taken from the drawing (approx.):
| Component | Mozac III | today |
| Overall length overall, outside | 59.50 m | 52.40 m |
| Longhouse length, outside | 28.60 m | 28.60 m |
| Longhouse length, inside | 26.30 m | 35.70 m |
| Longhouse width, outside | 18.60 m | 18.60 m |
| Longhouse width, inside | 16.30 m | 16.30 m |
| Corridor depth, outside | 15.10 m | - |
| Choir depth, outside | - | 10.20 m |
| Corridor width, outside | 17.40 m | - |
| Choir width, outside | - | 09.50 m |
| Transept length, outside, over everything | 30.70 m | 30.70 m |
| Transept length, inside, over everything | 29.00 m | 29.00 m |
| Transept width, outside | 09.50 m | 09.50 m |
| Transept width, inside | 07.60 m | 07.60 m |
| Central nave width, inside | 7.70 m | 7.70 m |
| Aisle width inside | 03.50 m | 03.50 m |
Today's building
Building interior
Northern narthex
When visiting the church, you first come to the Romanesque vestibule in yoke three on the north side of the nave. It probably had open passages on its west and north sides. An inscription on the arch stones of the archivolts of the portal to the church calls on visitors to the church to look up and "ad sublima", to cross the threshold with deference if one day he wants to get to the heavenly palace. The inscription is interesting because it clearly proclaims the deep symbolism of the church as it was understood in the Middle Ages, namely as a place that was the abode of God on earth and at the same time the forecourt of the heavenly Jerusalem. A symbolism that developed in a special way in the liturgy of church consecration. The inscription was first deciphered by Abbot Cohadon in 1842 . Your reading, which was wrong in the second part, was adopted by everyone who wrote about Mozac, but it ultimately prevailed after outstanding art historians such as Bréhier vouched for it. The following text is obviously correct: INGREDIENS TEMPLUM REFERAT AD SUBLIMA VULT (US): INTRATURI AULAM VENERASQUE LIMINA XPI and not “venite in solemnia Christi” . The first part can easily be translated: “By entering the temple with a raised eye” . The second part is more difficult because of the symbolism used here: The expression “ingrediens templum ” in the first verse, which refers to the earthly church, is opposed to “intraturi aulam” in the second verse. Which indicates the future entry into the heavenly abode of Christ. An immeasurable devotion “venerans que” should seize those who cross the church threshold (limina) . Christ himself is the gate (limina Christi) to a play on words in the latter term: "Through Christ alone one arrives in the kingdom of heaven" . The general meaning is obvious and at the same time very profound.
Longhouse
This main portal no longer leads to “one of the most beautiful paradise porches that ever existed on the Basse Auvergne”, but to a damaged, poorly repaired church. Of the architecture that was once admirable, the arcades and bundle pillars between the six-bay naves stand, albeit no longer completely perpendicular .
The bundle pillars consist of square cores that are clad on three sides, apart from the one facing the central nave, with three-quarter-round old services, which are equipped with capitals, with outstanding sculpture (see separate section), and with profiled, wide-spreading warriors . In the case of five bundle pillars, the edges of the cores between the services are beveled in the width of the spaces, and are slightly rounded. This makes the core appear half round. On the services, the arcade arches and belt arches of the side aisles stand up, the edges of which are simply designed at right angles. On the opposite side, on the outer walls, these belt arches stand on the same services with the same equipment, which protrude from flat rectangular wall pillars. Between the girdle and arcade arches and the outer walls of the side aisles, almost square groin vaults are drawn in, which once supported the no longer existing galleries. The barrel-shaped vaulted gussets facing the central nave merge seamlessly with the inside of the arcade arches. The vaults of the six aisle bays are part of the substance of the Romanesque church Mozac III, as well as the five high, round-arched windows in the north aisle with sloping walls. Their vertices reach just below the outer wall-side vault gussets.
The outer wall of the south aisle is significantly affected by the late Gothic renovations in the 15th century . In bays 3 to 5, three chapels with a rectangular floor plan open over the entire width of the bay and are covered with ribbed vaults. A small ogival window is recessed in each of the outer walls; in the 4th yoke it is rectangular. In the 2nd yoke there is still such a room as a storage room, but with a door to the courtyard. In the 6th yoke there is a right-angled opening with a double-winged door that led once into the cloister. The door is covered by a slender stone lintel beam, above which a semicircular skylight window opens. The door may have belonged to Mozac III. In each of the six bays in the upper wall area above the chapels a pointed arched window is cut out, with beveled walls and Gothic tracery. These windows were created by converting the formerly Romanesque windows. The six rectangular bays of the central nave are covered by the four-part ribbed vaults that were created in the 15th century. They are separated by yoke-dividing costal arches, with the same profile as that of the cross ribs. Its apex is arranged significantly lower than that of the former Romanesque barrel vault. Three ribs each stand together on the transom plates of the cantilever consoles, exactly in the middle above the pillars flush with the wall, in order to transfer the loads of the vaults into the walls. The console bodies taper downwards in steps, their lower end is approximately at the level of the apex of the arcade arches. At the apex of the cross ribs, the ribs meet on circular keystone disks with molded rib approaches. They are all sculpted in different shapes, often with coats of arms.
The west wall is divided vertically into three sections, corresponding to the three naves. The middle area protrudes slightly from the side areas, which was due to the fact that the older vestibule tower was taken into account when Mozat III was built. Presumably this vestibule was once the main entrance to the Romanesque church (?). The single-leaf rectangular door is framed by a brickwork thickening of almost 20 centimeters, which protrudes over the door by a good half a meter on the side and almost two meters at the top. The resulting additional depth of the door jamb is used for its lateral border with multiple round bars, which meet above the door to form a pointed arch, which is closed above with a finial . On both sides of the door there are slender pillars with a triangular cross-section, which are tapered at the level of the lintel to end with richly carved pinnacles at the level of the finial. Elaborately sculpted “crabs” grow out of the arched profiles. In the arched area there is a relief of a Latin cross, between the finial and the pinnacles you can see two flat reliefs of the coat of arms. The door frame can be assigned to the late Gothic flamboyant style .
The current version of the components of the nave is discreetly restrained with delicate colors. The basic color of the walls and vaulted surfaces is a light beige, changing slightly into a brownish shade, the vault ribs are set off in a darker color and were perhaps once polychrome, like those of the choir. The pillars, services and arches cover a light gray. The keystones are set in polychrome.
south side of the nave, yoke 7–1
north ldl. Aisle to the rear
3 chapels in the south aisle
Chapel yoke 5
Memorial plaque to donors
Corpus of Christ, without a cross, in a chapel
Keystone, ribbed vault
Keystone, ribbed vault
Transept
The transept is actually not one anymore, is on the same floor plan as the Romanesque transept. Some of the preserved parts of it were also integrated, such as the west and north walls of the north arm of the transept and the west wall and remains of the south wall of the south arm of the transept. The pillars of the crossing bundle are completely preserved, except for their upper sections, but are partly built into younger walls. From the western pillars there are still three free sides with two services and capitals (19, 20, 25, 26), of the eastern pillars only the sides facing the central nave with services and capitals (22, 23) have been preserved. The central nave was extended with two additional yokes 7 and 8, up to the former front crossing pillars, and covered with the same ribbed vaults at the same height. The former lateral crossing arcades were bricked up except for two smaller passages in the new 8th yoke.
These new walls were used to set up richly carved choir stalls with high backrests.
The transept arms are no longer divided by walls with candle arches , but are almost completely separated from the central nave by the walling up of the large arcades. The east walls of the "transept arms" and the outer layer of the gable wall in the south transept arm also date from the 15th century. Where the transept chapels and the entrances were, there are pointed arched windows. In the gable of the north arm of the transept there is another window, which is covered by a pointed arch. The cross rib vaults of the transept arms are arranged much deeper than the original ones. Where the old Schwibbogen stood, they are divided into a smaller and a larger vault area by a rib arch.
The "transept arms" probably still have the colored design in the Gothic style. The surfaces of the vault gussets are solid black-gray and partially peeled off, maybe once lighter. The vault ribs are polychrome. The wall surfaces show delicate blue repeating ornaments on a gray-beige background.
Choir
The choir lacks the grandeur of the Romanesque ambulatory choir with its handling and the radial chapels. It is the same width, but slightly shorter than the "old" choir with a semicircular apse. It is separated from the central nave of the same height by a somewhat stronger rib arch. The inner floor plan stands on a rectangular choir bay with an "apse" in the shape of a half octagon. The choir bay is covered by an additional ribbed vault, similar to those of the central nave. The apse vault is separated from it by a rib arch, which is divided by two half rib arches into three vault gussets, the edges of which rise very steeply towards the wall and are pointedly arched. In the wall sections of the choir bay and the three sides of the apse there is a large, slender, ogival window, followed shortly above by a circular oculus , both with barely beveled reveals. The round window almost touches the vault segment. The choir is much brighter than the central nave, especially opposite the area of the former crossing.
The vault ribs are again polychrome. Their gusset surfaces have a light beige background, which is painted with a slightly darker grid pattern, with a lively border on the edges . The walls are painted above the window parapets with a pattern in beige to brown tones, with arcatures, gables and finials that reach up slightly higher than the beginnings of the vault ribs. Above that, the wall surfaces change to a light blue-gray. The reveals of the windows are set off in brown.
Pre-Romanesque remains
crypt
The crypt was completely filled in after the collapse of the eastern part of Mozat III in the 15th century. In the 17th century it was greatly changed by the construction of a grave vault (ossuary?). In the second half of the 19th century it was partially exposed by Mallay and restored according to the taste of the time. Mallay is known for his restoration work, which is not always carried out with the restraint that is necessary for monument preservation.
The complete excavations carried out in the 1960s brought the massive walls of the crypt passage and its radial chapels to light. The walkway was covered with a ring-shaped barrel vault, the radial chapels with semi-dome-shaped domes.
The central rectangular room under the choir is not shown to the public today. The sources report that the entire floor plan of the crypt is now well known and roughly comparable to that of the Romanesque predecessor of the Arvernis Cathedral . As with this one, it has a rectangular hall enclosed by thick walls with two side entrances from the gallery. The Romanesque architects did not use this floor plan anywhere else in the Basse Auvergne . In other places, massive pillars mostly replace the thick walls used here under the pillars of the choir apse.
Not only the floor plan, but also the construction of the western part is archaic. The masonry is made of large blocks. There are stones up to 1.50 meters long, which no doubt came from Roman buildings. It can therefore be assumed that in the course of the construction of Mozac III and the associated renovation and enlargement of the crypt, shortly after 1095, remains of the previous crypt of Mozac II were reused. This would have had about the same dimensions as the later Romanesque church.
It is different in the eastern part of the crypt, in the surrounding area and in the radial chapels. The Cyclopean masonry mentioned above is not found here. That might lead to the conclusion that Mozac II had no contact (?).
Back to the crypt hall. On the east side, three apses open, the middle one reaching a little deeper, with a slit-shaped window into the gallery, which can be seen from the outside today. On the opposite, older west side, three deep niches open up, the so-called Martyrion . Here the most valuable relics belonging to the church were kept locked behind bars. There used to be openings in the steps above through which the lights placed for the relics could be seen. This shape of the crypt increased the capacity of a pilgrim church considerably.
Tower porch
This well-preserved evidence of pre-Romanesque architecture in the Auvergne is hardly visible today. The interior used as a storage room is not accessible to the public, and from the outside the neighboring buildings reach close to the west side. It can only be viewed through a grid from a distance from the north side.
The ground floor, the actual tower vestibule, is quite well preserved and has round-arched openings on the outside and rectangular openings towards the church. On an almost square floor plan with a side length of 6.50 × 6.85 meters stand walls 1.40 meters thick and made of huge stones, two of them measuring 1.94 × 0.56 meters on the outside. The arch stones are also unusually large: only 11 to 12 arch stones make up a semicircular opening 2.07 meters wide. The stones were often trimmed. Its antique cut allows it to be easily distinguished from that of the Middle Ages, which is relatively coarse and irregular. The fighters at the arches are equally impressively shaped. They are adorned with wide cartouches. At least one of the fighters was used again, you can recognize it by the fact that the side embedded in the wall is also carved.
The extensive use of large antique ashlar stones, the numerous fillings, the stone carving with a stone hammer, the very wide joints, the warps with volutes in the notch cut, all these are at least indications of the Mozac II church built on the occasion of the transfer of the relics of St. Austremonius around 848 In any case, "second-hand" fighters have been reused, presumably from the construction of the first church, Mozac I, initiated by Calminius, towards the end of the 7th century (?).
The two spiral staircases hidden in the west wall of the nave led up to the former gallery floors, one of them also to the upper floor of the tower: it was formerly illuminated by two windows with non-beveled reveals, which are now walled up. The former triple opening to the central nave of the church is also walled up, the arches of which did not stand on pillars but on small pillars with fighters.
Outward appearance
Westwork
The “facade” consists of the western gable walls of the nave aisles, about 2.20 meters thick, and the protruding bell tower inserted between them, above the tower vestibule described in the previous section. The closed gable walls on the northern section of the facade are almost at their original height, which was determined by the galleries above the aisles that existed at the time. This is mainly due to the fact that in the first two bays the northern outer wall of the mezzanine level still exists or has been reconstructed, to which the façade wall connects at a corner. Immediately behind it, a narrow strip of the former roof of the gallery has been reconstructed. The gable wall has been partially removed on the southern section. Its top begins a little above the current eaves and rises at an angle of about 45 degrees up to the tower. The only structure of the facade walls are the pillars as an extension of the outer walls of the nave, indented slightly from the corner of the building and steeply sloping on the top.
The central tower rises with the same outline over two "storeys" of approximately the same height to just above the current saddle roof ridge of the central nave. The floors are subdivided by a strong, profiled cantilevered cornice made of fighter stones that do not match each other very well and have some gaps. This suggests reuse. The second floor closes off a profiled cornice that was made for this purpose. Above it, slightly indented, stands a last floor, hardly half as high as the lower floors, which is closed off by a profiled eaves cornice. The bell storey is covered by a gently sloping pyramid roof with red hollow brick roofing. Ogival twin sound hatches are recessed on all sides, with slightly sloping walls.
The tower must not have been covered as far or not at all on the north and south sides as the gable walls of Mozac III do. The round-arched passage openings on these sides towards the vestibule begin immediately next to the adjoining wall when viewed from the outside and are clearly shifted from the center of the wall. In the floor plan, however, you can see that these openings are exactly in the axis of the tower, both on its outside and inside. Exactly axially above these passages there were once slender, arched and quite high window openings, which rose directly on the cornice dividing the height. You can only see them on closer inspection, because the subsequent brickwork adapts to the tower walls in terms of structure and color. The fact that the windows and sound hatches sit on the cornices suggests that the floors are lower down. On the west side of the vestibule, there was a significantly larger arched passage than the two on the side.
The cyclopean masonry made of ancient stone material has been described and dated in the previous section. It is found predominantly on the edges of the tower up to over half of the second floor, and around the openings in the passages and windows. The large stones are mostly light blue-gray tones. They alternate to a lesser extent with stones in light beige to light brown tones. Towards the middle of the tower walls you can find mostly small-format gray to anthracite-colored basalt rubble stones of any shape that are piled on top of each other without layers. However, there are also different colored prisoners. This conglomerate is filled with a high proportion of mortar, one can hardly speak of joints. The mortar often covers entire areas from which only dark points or stripes of the stones protrude.
This "primitive" masonry only stops shortly below the bell storey and changes to the precisely joined gray stone masonry of the bell tower storey. This tower head was probably built after the abolition of the crossing bell tower.
The masonry of the two gable walls next to the tower probably comes from the Mozac III church building, which does not rule out the reuse of stone material. The component corners with the protruding wall pillars are neatly joined together from gray stone. The masonry of the walls shows similarities with those of the tower. Here, too, small-format, almost black stone material with a high proportion of mortar is dominant. One recognizes, however, an effort to form stone layers.
Longhouse
The three-aisled nave has had a strong height offset between the slightly inclined gable roof of the central nave and the equally inclined monopitch roofs of the side aisles since the 15th century. This is mainly due to the fact that the former gallery floors of the side aisles, with the exception of small remains, were not rebuilt after the damage from several earthquakes. Today the monopitch roofs just cover the preserved vaults of the side aisle storeys. The gable roof of the central nave is now also at a lower height because the height of the vault has also decreased.
The upper cladding walls are closed. In front of them, however, in the rhythm of the yokes, there are slightly projecting buttresses with bevels on the top, which indicates low shear forces from the vault. The wall on the north side consists of quarry stone masonry in a wild bond, the south side is smoothly plastered. The eaves on the north side are fitted with a slightly projecting cantilever cornice with profiled visible edges. A rain gutter, which is not visible from below, is located behind the cornice and is drained via rain pipes. On the south side, flat cornice cantilever plates protrude significantly further, but the rainwater drips off them freely. The roofs are covered with red hollow tiles in Roman shape, which are also called monk-nun tiles.
The outer wall of the north aisle in bays 4–6, between the expansive extensions of the north arm of the transept and the north narthex, are clad with a blind arcade consisting of three large arcades. Semicircular arcade arches made of distinctive arch stones, in changing colors, between gray-brown and gray-blue, meet slightly projecting, almost twice as wide wall pillars, which are separated from one another by simple striker plates. The outer pillars of yokes 4 and 6 go into the masonry of the extensions. The outer apex of the arch stones reach just below the eaves. In the upper area of the arcade niches, slender round-arched windows are recessed with simple right-angled reveal edges. Their arch approaches are just above the height of the fighters of the blind arcades. The arch stones of the windows are covered by cantilever profiles with roller friezes that bend horizontally at the level of the arches until they hit the lowest arch stones of the arcades.
The walls of the arcade niches consist of a vertical strip of light gray and light beige stone up to the level of the window sills on both edges next to the buttresses, which take over the layers of the buttress stones, but the stone length changes in layers, sometimes short times long. The remaining parapet field is filled with polygonal basalt prisms , as known from basalt paving stones . Instead of horizontal layers, there is a wave-like arrangement of the stones. The wall pieces on both sides of the vertical window reveals consist entirely of the aforementioned stone. The arched fields above the profile with the roller frieze are filled with the same dark stones as in the parapet, but in a disordered formation.
In front of the above-described section of the northern outer wall and in the depth of the side extensions, a platform about one meter high is formed. The front was made of large ashlar and small rubble stones in gray tones in a wild bond, the top is covered with gray natural stone slabs. There is no information about its meaning. A slit-like, flat, barred opening in the front wall suggests a cavity.
The outer wall section in bays 1 and 2 of the north aisle, between the building corner and the north narthex, has almost the same texture on the ground floor as in the section described above, but with only two large blind arcades. The distance between the arch stone apices and the cantilever cornice above is a bit higher. It is also noticeable that the widths of the arcade niches are quite different and the windows are not exactly centered, as is the case inside the building. The external shifts are due to the arrangement of the narthex wall and that of the buttress at the corner of the building.
A piece of the outer wall of the former gallery rises above the cantilevered cornice, from the corner of the building to around the middle of the 2nd yoke, which originally extended over the entire length of the nave, with the gallery behind it. Since the sources do not give any information about this wall section, it can be assumed that it was only recently built as a reconstruction. Its “as good as new” condition confirms this assumption.
The design corresponds almost exactly to that of the Notre-Dame du Port collegiate church in nearby Clermont-Ferrand. In the upper wall section, between the cantilevered cornice and the corbels of the eaves, blind arches were embedded in groups of three in wall niches, which were separated by wall pillars of different widths. Of these, only a whole triplet arcade and a single arcade are shown here. Your arch stones are flush with the outside wall. The three arches stand on four little pillars, which are equipped with capitals carved from plants, profiled fighters and bases. They are covered by a cantilever profile with a roller frieze, which bends horizontally at the height of the arches and extends to the next group or the buttress of the building corner. Only in the central arcade is a somewhat smaller round arched window left open.
The outer wall of the gallery, including the arcades, is mainly made of light beige to light gray stone. The arched fields of the blind arcades are filled with almost black basalt stone prisms. This also applies to the "parapet" between the arch stone apexes of the large blind arcades and the cantilever cornice above, albeit with attempted layering.
The eaves consist of flat cornice panels with a profiled visible edge that rest on chipboard bricks , all parts in a light beige shade. The spaces between the corbels are lined with small basalt prisms. Above and behind this eaves a short piece of the original roof covering has been reconstructed, which extends up to the tower next to the sloping gable wall. You can see the elevation of the former grandstand floor here. The red hollow brick roofing in Roman shape protrudes slightly over the cornice to allow the rainwater to drip off freely.
The partial reconstruction described above is followed by a further section in the 3rd yoke, the walls of which are only a bit raised above the continuous cantilever profile and can hardly be seen from below, hidden by the narthex. Within the aisle bays 1 to 3 there is no pent roof as in the three other bays. Here is still (or again) the floor of the former grandstand floor above the preserved vault, which was designed as an accessible flat roof.
It can hardly be assumed whether the south wall of the nave of Mozac III could have a wall structure similar to that of the former north wall. The north and east sides of the church were always the sides facing the village. The south side was rather hidden, as the west side experiences today. The lack of the former gallery floor also applies here, but for the entire length.
Hardly anything can be seen of the former substance of the old outer wall of the south aisle. Five huge buttresses now dominate the image of the south wall. They are a subsequent walling in width and deepening of the former low-rise buttresses. They reach about half a meter below the eaves of the aisle and are covered on the top with flat slabs. At about two thirds of its height there is a setback with a roof-like cover on its outer sides, which merges into a cantilever profile with a hollow on the underside and then extends over the entire south wall and the pillar sides. The side aisle walls are equipped with ogival windows in all six bays, the benches of which stand up on the aforementioned cantilever profile and their apexes reach just below the eaves. They have been converted from the former arched window openings. Their sloping reveals (= garments) are framed by gray ashlar. Between the edging and the surrounding structural elements, the masonry consists mainly of hardly worked rubble stones, without layering, which was smeared with a lot of mortar. The windows in yokes 1 to 5 are equipped with simple Gothic tracery, in the slightly wider window in yoke 6, it is much more elaborately designed in the flamboyant style.
Three chapels and a storage room have been inserted between the five thick pillars, the outer walls of which go a short distance in front of the pillars. Their flat sloping monopitch roofs butt against the side aisle wall under the continuous cantilever profile. They are covered with red hollow bricks. At a height of about one meter, a profile made of two round bars marks a base. Two chapels have a squat, pointed arch window in the center, the third a rectangular one. Their edges are resolved with multiple profiles. The storage room is accessible from the outside via a right-angled door.
In the 6th yoke, a two-wing right-angled door is recessed in the aisle wall, with a slim lintel and above it with a semicircular skylight window. The archivolt arch is composed of three strong round rods and several thinner companions and stands on a garment made of multiple profile rods, which is covered by stepped striker plates. The lintel is also profiled several times.
In the first yoke of the south aisle, a niche is cut out, which is framed with style elements of the Gothic Flamboyant. It is so low that one cannot assume that it was a former doorway. The rectangular niche is encompassed by multiple round bar and cove profiles that unite in the middle after a double curve to form a towering point. It is a design in the flamboyant style. The rectangular pillars on the side are closed with unfinished (destroyed) pinnacles. The arches are richly decorated on the top with vegetable motifs. The expected finial is also missing (it was destroyed).
In the center of the niche, a rectangular tableau is installed with archaic motifs. In the center is an ancient column with a warrior , base and plinth engraved. Next to it, at the bottom left and top right, is the royal lily, the “Fleur de Lys” , and a key at the bottom right. At the top left a circle with a small cross (orb?). The column possibly stands for the abbey building, the lilies and the imperial orb (?) For the royal rule, the key for Peter, one of the patron saints of the abbey.
Two coats of arms are shown next to each other above the niche. The left one with three flowers, which are separated by a roof-like kinked band, the right one is equipped with three clover leaves, is divided once horizontally and bordered by a decorative wreath, which is marked with a miter and crook .
Northern narthex
On the north side of the nave, a narthex, which is almost square in plan, has been added in the third yoke . Its ridge connects just below the current eaves of the aisle. The roof is slightly inclined and covered with red hollow tiles in Roman format. The eaves are formed with chipboard bricks. The side walls are built on the building edges with gray-beige stone, otherwise mostly basalt prisms in wave-shaped layers. A large semicircular arch is arranged on the west wall, which takes up almost the entire width of the wall. It rises slightly stilted from the adjacent terrain and barely reaches the height of the portal door on the north side. The receding plastered arched niche is passed over by arch stones made of light-colored stone. The arch was probably open at the beginning of the narthex, perhaps there was also such an opening on the north side (?). The narthex gable extends a good meter above its roof surface and is covered on the top with flat stone slabs. Its façade consists predominantly of light beige and light gray ashlar stones for well over half of its height, less of those in medium to dark gray tones. Above that, the stones are only dark gray to anthracite in color.
The outer portal, centered in the narthex gable wall, now serves as the main portal of the church. It is a three-tier archivolt portal, the walls and arches of which are dominated by three round bars of equal thickness, between which edges of setbacks protrude. Strong, profiled and right-angled transom plates are inserted at the level of the arches. The third round arched rod is additionally covered by a band of flat arched stones, onto which a narrow angular groove is formed on the inside, and the last one is surrounded by a rounded profile on which a groove is formed on the inside. This profile bends a short distance horizontally at the arch base. The vertical rods stand on a slightly protruding base. The arched field above the double-leaf wooden door is filled with a skylight window.
A large and wide semicircular arch was arranged above the door arches, made of broad arch stones made of light, almost white stone. It stands on two profiled fighter plates in the masonry of the gable wall. The inner diameter of the arch corresponds to the outer width of the last overlapping profile of the portal. The arch stones are bordered on both edges by half round profiles. A piece above the arches, the arched field, which is clearly recessed, is delimited by a horizontal, profiled cantilever cornice. The background of the arch niche and the inside of the arch are plastered. The Latin inscription can no longer be perfectly deciphered. The letters received are roughly: CHRISTO - SALVATOR / ET STIS / PETRO ET STREMONIO APOST / ANNO M.DCCC.II / PIO VI…. ET ... EIPUR - CAL ... X ... B (?). (see the photo). She is not very old and speaks of the apostles Peter and Austremonius (Auvergne), whose relics were venerated here from the early days of the abbey.
The inscription on the lintel inside the narthex is dealt with in the section “Building interior, narthex”.
"Querhaus" and choir
In the Mozac III building, the roofs of the nave ended behind the 6th yoke. They were limited by the “massif barlong” at the height of the former crossing dome, with the towering bell tower, and by the transept arms, which had the same eaves height as the side aisles of that time. All of these components have largely disappeared, except for a few remains of the lower masonry of the walls and pillars.
Today the gable roof of the central nave extends over the former crossing and extends in the same elevation to the polygonal choir apse. The arms of the "transept" are covered with gable roofs, the eaves and ridge heights of which correspond to those of today's aisles. The western corners of the transept arms could get their buttresses, the eastern corners got new ones, including one almost in the middle of the eastern transept wall. The buttresses of the building corners are made of ashlar blocks in all the hitherto occurring colors, their upper sides are steeply bevelled or covered with roof tiles. The masonry of the wall surfaces consists predominantly of hardly worked rubble stones in a wild association, partly also walled up in irregular layers.
Where the transept chapels and the entrances to the ambulatory were originally located, pointed arched windows with tracery in the Gothic Flamboyant style were installed in the 15th century, including one in the northern gable wall.
The shape of today's choir has nothing to do with the magnificent choir head of Mozac III. Its elevation is immediately adjacent to that of the central nave extension over the former crossing. The apse follows the rectangular choir bay on the plan of half an octagon. On the four corners of the apse, strong buttresses with a rectangular plan are arranged radially, which end with the roofs of their roof-like covers just below the eaves of the choir. The latter are covered with flat shingles. At a little more than a third of its height, its cross-section tapers slightly and is enclosed by a projecting cantilever profile. From there again as high as that, transom profiles are built into the sides of the buttresses. At the same height, stone with raised reliefs of heraldic shields are inserted on the front. In each of the five wall sections of the choir there is a large and slender pointed arch window, the reveals of which are only slightly widened, but rounded off like a valley. Your window sills are steeply sloping. The tracery shows elements of the Gothic flamboyant style. A circular window, a so-called oculus , with the same reveals opens just above the apex of the arch . The stone types and associations correspond to those of the "transept".
By the middle of the 19th century, the terrain around the choir was completely filled and leveled. Nothing there reminded of the dimensions of the old crypt and the choir head of Mozac III. Since the 1960s, the well-preserved walls around the crypt, in the form of a half circular ring, have been completely exposed and expertly restored. Four radially arranged bulges are molded into the outer sides of the gallery, which were once small bypass chapels of the crypt and mark the position of the radial chapels on the ground floor above. From the former ring barrel vaulting of the crypt passage, complete vaulting contours can still be seen near the “transept”. The corners of the chapels are again made of large-format ashlar blocks, but the walls are again made of quarry stone with lots of mortar, and the outer walls are also made of basalt prisms.
Sculpture of the church building
Tympanum on the portal of the south arm of the transept
The western wall of the southern arm of the transept originally had a portal that led out to the cloister. The portal opening was bricked up in the course of the restoration work in the 15th century. However, the arched field was preserved, covered with heavily damaged arch stones, which are decorated on their front with two round profiles separated by a groove, which are flanked by fine companions. The arch stands on fighter plates, the substructures of which are missing. About the lower half of the arch field is taken up by a monolithic lintel, the top of which is roof-like inclined to both sides by about 25 degrees.
Its front is lavishly sculpted with high quality, with reliefs of ten people whose scale decreases from the inside out, following the slope of the top edge of the lintel. The sculptor was thus following an old custom, according to which the scale size of the figures corresponded to their meaning or dignity. The reliefs still show remains of a polychrome setting, especially the gold tones. The lintel is framed in the background, below by a narrow, smooth band, above by a sloping, wider band. The figures stand with bare feet on the lower belt, one humbly falls on her knees. Their bodies are in front of the level of the upper band, their heads slightly protruding with their nimbs.
The center is dominated by an enthroned Madonna with an almost black face, which towers over the other people even when seated. The throne with its base and the two armrests protrudes slightly from the lower band. The baby Jesus sits on his mother's lap facing the viewer and, like her, wears a crown. It raises its right hand in a blessing, with two outstretched fingers, and presses a tablet or a book against its chest. Both are marked with nimbuses behind their heads, the baby Jesus with a nimbus on the cross. On both sides of the middle there are figures of saints, recognizable as such by their halves. On the left, St. Peter can be identified by the keys, on the opposite side stands the beardless St. John, the book of the Gospel pressed to his chest with both hands. Behind Peter probably follows St. Austremonius, who with his right hand recommends the abbot of Mozac to the virgin who is praying, who falls on his knees in a humble manner. A comparable humble attitude can be found in the holy Fides above the portal of Ste-Foy de Conques. At the same height next to him stands a saint with a small remnant of nimbus, who is carrying a kind of pine cone in one hand . The next two people behind John hold a crook in their right hand and the Holy Scriptures in their left . The last and smallest person in this row carries a paw cross on a short stem in their right hand . In his left hand he seems to be holding up a flower on its stem. Despite a certain stiffness and awkwardness of some postures, the French art historian Swiechowski was positively impressed by the pronounced reliefs of the heads and the sculpture of the eyes. He assigns the lintel to the same workshop that designed the Resurrection Capital.
The rest of the upper section of the arch field was once completely plastered and painted in many colors, of which only meager remnants have remained. On the far right there is a coherent plastered area painted blue. Half right there is perhaps an angel, with a nimbus and wings, who turns towards the center. Everything else has fallen victim to destruction.
Capitals
Of the former 48 capitals of the nave, 45 are still preserved in situ. The capitals of the former crossing piers have largely disappeared in the "new" masonry of the 15th century. On each of the eight columns of the former choir apse there was a large capital carved on all sides. Of these, three magnificent individual pieces have been placed in the church in the best state of preservation on short stumps of columns at eye level, two of them in yoke 1 of the central nave and one in the entrance to the choir room.
- List of capitals from Mozac
The position of the capitals can be seen from the numbering in the attached position sketch.
- 1. "Atlases"
- 2. Resurrection of Jesus
- 3. Men climb in the tendril
- 6. Men
- 9.Masks in foliage (see also 11 and 42)
- 10. Winged dragons face each other (see also 39)
- 11. Three masks (see also 9 and 42)
- 12. Centaurs (see also 35)
- 13. Man and sitting monkey
- 14. Thief in the vineyard, with guard
- 18. Story of Jonas
- 19. Birds with tails made of foliage (see also 26 and 27)
- 22. Deliverance of St. Peter
- 24. Genii with shields (see also 36)
- 26. Birds with tails made of foliage (see also 19 and 27)
- 29. Grasp a "chalice" (see also 44)
- 30. Naked men with one knee on the floor
- 33. Men ride on goats (see also 43)
- 35. Centaurs (see also 12)
- 36. Genii with shields (see also 24)
- 37. Monkey and juggler (see also 13)
- 38. Tobias and Samson
- 39.Dragons (see also 10)
- 42. Masks and acanthus leaves (see also 9 and 11)
- 43. Grasp a "chalice" (see also 29)
- 48. The Capital of Revelation, or Four Angels and Four Winds
Leaf capitals are not mentioned.
Capitals of the former choir
Chapter # 2: The Resurrection of Jesus
The Master of Mozac stuck to an old tradition in which he did not depict the event of the resurrection directly, but rather represented it through the holy women who visited the grave on Easter morning. The women approach a procession in painful mourning and press vessels with spices for the embalming of the body of Jesus to them. Their figures stand out from a seemingly unreal background of an open drapery with suggested folds. An angel sits at the empty grave. With a sweeping gesture he proclaims the monstrous news: "Christ is no longer here, he is risen". The magnificently designed sarcophagus, on which it is leaning, is reminiscent of a church, with a roof, a tower and an altar room with lamps. A similar scene can be found in Saint-Nectaire on the choir capitals No. 7 and 8. The guards who fell asleep on the last page of the capital have no idea of this.
In the sculpture of the Auvergne, a Gallo-Roman tradition was cultivated in the representation of the human figure, which was always composed of oversized heads and short bodies. This is done here with the train of women. The women have severely shortened legs beneath their long robes, a deliberately used trick by the sculptor, taking into account the location, at least five meters high. That is why the faces have also been enlarged, even if they have been composed with the greatest care. In this regard, the face of Maria Magdalena in the middle of the group is particularly to be admired . The hole in the middle of the pupil makes the view look particularly lively. The sculpture of the heads stands out clearly from the plane underground of the nimben. With impressive but sparing gestures, especially with Maria Magdalena, a great reluctance to her impotence and her sadness is expressed.
The youthful angel of the resurrection with his dark eyes looks particularly beautiful. He received the women in a seated position with his bare feet on the sarcophagus. His loosely hanging cloak shows the shoulder, the extended arm and the bent legs clearly. Here there is a special agitation of the seated angel, with his body flexion and his gestures, in contrast to the static train of women. The youthful angel figure in full motion symbolizes the joy of Easter alone. The opposite side is completely different and shows the guards sleeping while standing in a humorous way. One even clenches his fists. The heads with pointed helmets swing in different directions in deep sleep. You have lost consciousness.
Chapter 2, Resurrection, The Women, detail
Chapter 2, Resurrection, The Women, detail
Chapter 2, Resurrection, The Angel, detail
Chapter 2, Resurrection, Mary Magdalene (portrait)
- Capital No. 1
- "Atlases"
The name “ atlases ” is actually incorrect because the people don't wear anything. But it is a great artistic composition. Four naked upper bodies of men "stand" centered on the edges of the capital on their knees, arms and lower legs angled upwards, and each touching in the middle of the basket. Your sculpture approaches full plastic. The shoulders and neck have completely detached themselves from the ground. You can feel a striving for a near-natural sculpture in physique and shape. The gestures and faces are shaped differently depending on the side. The hands reach for pine cones and form a garland that goes around the entire capital.
Chapter 1, Atlases
Chapter 1, Atlases
Chapter 1, Atlases
Chapter 1, Atlases
- Chapter 48
- "Capital of Revelation" or "Four Angels and Four Winds"
Angels with slightly bent legs and spread wings stand on the capital edges, facing the viewer. Between them, partly naked, beardless men crouch with crossed legs and partly open mouths, slightly facing the angels standing on the left. The angels try to close their mouths with their left hands by enclosing their upper jaw and chin. One of the men holds a blow horn in his mouth. The others each wear a blow horn in front of their chest. The angels also wear one in their right hand. The capital was found in September 1983 in the south wall of the choir.
This iconography is probably unique in that of the Christian West. In chapter 7 verse 1 of the Revelation of St. John, four angels prevent four winds from blowing from the four directions of the earth.
Chapter 48, Revelation Capital
Chapter 48, Revelation Capital
Chapter 48, Revelation Capital
Chapter 48, Revelation Capital
Capitals of the nave
Their great uniformity in style, sculpture, and artistic value suggests the same sculptor. However, this requires an unusually rapid execution and an extraordinary wealth of design, quite the opposite of Brioude , where the handwriting or the influence of Mozac's workshop can be seen on several capitals.
Mozac's capitals do not differ from the other Auvergnatian sculptures by their special thematic originality. Their motifs come from the same inventory that goes back to antiquity, with its centaurs , goddesses of victory, griffins , pseudo-atlases, dragons facing each other, and masks amidst foliage. One often comes across the motif of the showman with a monkey, which is widespread in the Auvergne.
The sculpture of the nave capitals has its status not least because it has developed a pronounced sense of ornamental composition. The baskets of the capitals are not overloaded. Two chimeras with twisted bodies and stiff wings are enough to fill a capital (No. 10). Their clear outlines are underlined by the sidelight that falls gently on almost all of the capitals. A symmetry that is always lively becomes visible in the design of the picture , sometimes strict, but also loosened up, for example on the capital No. 33 with the goats that stand head to head. An astonishing interaction between flora and fauna creates a poetic sphere , for example a crown of acanthus leaves that gracefully wind around the shaft of a capital, or the showman and monkey sit together on a leaf (nos. 13 and 37). Again and again, fruit bunches and leaves decorate the center of the baskets, as on the capitals (nos. 12 and 35) with centaurs. In almost all cases the tails of the animals, be it buck, centaur or griffin, end in fanned out foliage. Even the beards of the goats facing each other are depicted as acanthus leaves. The most beautiful capitals in this regard are those with the numbers 19, 26 and 27, on which imaginatively modified birds with tails made of leaves are depicted, on winding tendrils decorated with magnificent flowers and fruits for which they peck.
There are no human heads to be found on the capital edges with immobile expressions, as are typical of the design by the sculptor Rotbertus in Notre-Dame du Port. In Mozac's nave, the sculptors were careful to reproduce the human proportions as realistically as possible. In accordance with this circumstance, there are no standing figures, but only figures seated, kneeling, riding on goats or even fish (No. 38), and even crawling figures, such as the thief in the vineyard (No. 14). It is almost always young beardless faces that have been made fully sculptural throughout. Arms and legs sometimes detach from the ground.
Chapter 13 (also 37), juggler with a monkey
Capital 37 (also 13), juggler with vessel and a monkey (with ball)
Chapter 12 (also 35), Centaurs harvest fruits
Chapter 35 (also 12), Centaurs harvest fruits
Capital 26 (also 19, 27), birds with tails made of foliage, and masks
Chapter 19 (also 26, 27), birds with tails made of foliage, and masks
Capital 14, cieb in the vineyard, creeping
Capital 14, guard in the vineyard, with lance
There is only a single narrative chapter in the nave (No. 18). It is dedicated to the story of Jonas . The model for this scene was an early Christian sarcophagus. On a boat in distress, the naked Jonas is thrown into the sea by his companion. A “whale” is just coming in to catch it. Further to the left, Jonas, who has just been spat out, is sleeping in front of a juniper bush. A little further away you can see the walls of the city of Nineveh . It is a naive, somewhat overloaded capital sculpture, which, however, reproduces the essential events of the Bible narrative in a condensed manner, with a departure from humor, in which the helmsman covers his eyes.
The liberation of the apostle Peter , one of the patrons of the abbey, presumably made by the same sculptor, is told in a similar way on the capital (No. 22) . It is still the only in situ capital on the former triumphal floor of the former choir.
On the mask capitals (nos. 9 and 11), twisted acanthus leaves sprout from the shaft ring and cover the lower area of the basket. Stronger leaves have spread out on the capital edges. Human heads with and without beards protrude from the entire foliage, with distinctive characters. Some of them are shown in stylized form, a head may have been inspired by a Jupiter Serapis (number 11). The south side of the capital (No. 9), on the other hand, presents a real portrait that shows an astonishing effort for individual expression for the Romanesque period.
An almost identical wreath of acanthus leaves also surrounds the capital of the genii (No. 36). In the middle of the basket is a small head with a fearful expression of intense inner agony. Both capitals were probably carved by the same hand and at the same time.
Chapter 36 (also 24), genii with shields
Chapter 24 (also 36), genii with shields
Capital 27 (also 19, 26), birds with tails made of foliage, and a cat's head
Capital 29 (also 44), griffins with chalice
Chapter 33 (also 43), men ride on goats
Chapter 3, men climbing in the tendrils
Capital 39 (also 10), winged dragons
Chapter 9, masks in scrollwork
A workshop or two?
At first glance, the distinction between two workshops seems to be obvious. This assumption is based on the pronounced contrasts between the capitals, which are exceptionally powerful in form and structure, on the round pillars of the former ambulatory choir and the capitals, enriched with refinement and poetry, on the service of the pillars of the nave. One has to bear in mind that a sculptor has different problems to cope with when sculpting an all-round capital than with an “integrated” capital. With the first, it has theoretically twice the processing volume. In fact, much more. The four sides of the capital can be edited independently. In the case of the "integrated" capital over partially round columns (services), however, the short broad sides are almost unusable. An old procedure has been used in these cases and the representation has been expanded across the corner.
One must also differentiate between the narrative and the decorative sculpture of a capital. The viewer must not be fooled by the fact that the figures of the capitals of the nave appear relatively small compared to the occasional remaining ones in the ambulatory choir. The figures of the choir capitals, which can be seen “only” at eye level today, appear much larger and their perspective seems falsified.
If you compare the capital “Atlantenkapitell” (No. 1), which is presumably ascribed to a “first workshop”, with those of the nave, you come across surprising similarities. In both cases, the sculptors endeavored to model them fully. The same detachment of the heads and arms of the “atlases” from their subsurface can also be seen in the nave, albeit to a lesser extent. The relationship between head and body corresponds roughly to the natural proportions - here, too, the heads emerge three-dimensionally - arms and legs are partially designed completely round.
It goes on with an apparently insignificant detail, but that should be of great importance because it means a kind of signature of the workshop. Two forms of male hairstyle can be seen on the capital of the “Atlases”. One consists of broad strands of hair, the ends of which curl up counterclockwise, the other of parallel strands that are also broad, but smooth and regular and that seem to stick to the head, combed with or without a central part. Both hairstyles reveal a swift execution, which cannot be compared with the fine accuracy of the Rotbertus von Arvernis (Clermont). This peculiar hairstyle is not only found on the masks (No. 11), but on almost all capitals (!).
In Mozac III there were between the Atlantenkapitell in the ambulatory (No. 1) and the capital in front of the west wall of the nave, with climbing men (No. 3), almost 50 meters away. Here as there you will find the same type of hairstyle, curls and parallel grooves, which is certainly no coincidence. Such peculiarities can definitely be called “signature”.
After summarizing the above observations, the development from low to high relief, the sculptural design of the heads and the hairstyle, it can be concluded that only one workshop could have been busy with the sculpture of the capitals in Mozac for a relatively short period of time. With such a plausible assumption, in the absence of the most significant parts of the architecture, one could date the construction of this church more precisely, and certify that it was built quickly and without interruption.
If this assumption is followed, in which the opening of the building site is dated towards the end of the 11th century - after the annexation to Cluny (1095) - the creation of the capitals by Mozac could be confirmed in the first quarter of the 12th century.
A single workshop, however, means not just one, but always several sculptors, each with his own personality, within different limits. Something like this can be observed well when comparing capital sculptures with similar themes and according to the same scheme. If you look at the depictions of birds with tails made of tendrils and foliage (nos. 19, 26 and 27) and compare them with the “Genii with shields of victory goddesses” (nos. 24 and 36), the differences in quality are unmistakable, although they were manufactured at the same time.
Capitals in the Musée Lapidaire by Mozac
Capital, portrait of a bearded old man, Musée lapidaire
Capital "Daniel in the Lions' Den", Musée lapidaire
Capital with dragons, Musée lapidaire
Church treasure
Reliquary of St. Calmin and St. Namadie
The precious shrine, which contains the relics of the founders of Mozac, is thanks to Jean Ozena (1756-1832), a pious and courageous resident and city councilor of Mozac, who hid it during the French Revolution and was able to save it for posterity.
The shrine has the shape of a nave without a transept and choir. With its dimensions of 81 × 24 × 45 centimeters, it is the largest surviving reliquary from the Limousin and at the same time the most magnificent. The wood core is clad with 14 slightly curved copper plates, which were provided with colored Limoges enamel made from pit enamel . The fire-gilded copper surfaces that were not excavated have faded over time. The typical Limoges shades of dark, almost black blue, warm lapis lazuli blue, greenish turquoise blue and bright lavender blue still present themselves in bright colors. Lapis lazuli blue and turquoise blue were used for larger background areas. In addition, green in four tones, yellow, white and very rarely red were used, the latter to emphasize clothes or certain motifs. With just a few dabs of color, the enameller was able to achieve a wide variety of effects: drops of enamel make eyes appear relief-like or simulate gemstones.
The pictorial representations are often explained with inscriptions in Latin capital letters on ribbon. The information comes very close to that of a historiography. Since there was a period of about 500 years between the founding of the abbey (end of the 7th century) and the production of the texts of the shrine (mid to end of the 12th century) and the early events were almost only passed down orally, such texts must be accompanied by legendary changes to the real history.
On the long sides, the figure reliefs made of gilded copper stand out effectively against a background richly ornamented with flower tendrils, rosettes and Kufic (Arabic) characters. The lower middle field shows a crucifixion of Christ Mary and John . A Majestas Domini is depicted in the middle of the roof . To the side of it the Twelve Apostles are lined up under a blind arcade. The names are written on a tape that stands out on the background. Peter, with the keys, Thomas points with a gesture to Christ on the cross . Most carry the book of scriptures on their chests.
The back of the shrine is divided into six fields dedicated to Saint Calminius and his wife (?) Namadia . The foundation of the three abbeys, whose founders and benefactors they are said to have been, is shown:
- 1. Saint-Chaffre (le Monastier) in the diocese of Le Puy.
- 2. Tulle in the Diocese of Limoges
- 3. Mozac, in honor of the holy martyr Caprasius and the apostle Peter.
On the plate for the Mozac Foundation, an architecture is shown in the middle that takes up more than half the entire width of the field and symbolizes a church building with a large arcade in the center, flanked by two very narrow arcades, perhaps a three-aisled nave (?), covered with a shingled roof on which three turrets sit. The "central nave" is divided into an upper and a lower half. Construction work is taking place in the lower one. On a masonry altar, which has not yet been consecrated due to the missing altar cloth cover , stands a large vat filled with mortar, over which two masons bend, who may have been there in Le Monastir and Tulle . One of them is carrying a cylindrical vessel with which he presumably fills the vat with mortar. The second is to dip a trowel into the mortar. With his left hand he places another brick on the started, barely chest-high wall pillar on which he has just applied mortar. An extremely realistic representation.
In the arch above the upper body of St. Caprais is depicted, one of the two church patrons , looking slightly to the left, pointing with the index finger of his right hand at the book in his left. On the tape below it reads: S. CAPRASIVS MARTIR DEI X: Holy Caprais, martyr of God. On the left stands the holy Namadie, with the index finger of the left pointing towards the center. The roof-like bent tape informs about it: NAMADIA. On the opposite side is St. Calminius, in his left hand the Holy Scriptures, with two fingers of the right pointing towards the center. The roof-like tape bears its name: CALMINIVS. All three saints wear nimbs behind their heads. The following text is deciphered on three of the four edges of the plate: S. CALMINIVS: CO (N) STRUIT: TERCIA (M): ABBA (T) IAM: NOMINE MAVTIACUM: IN ARVERNENSI EP (ISCOP) ATV: INONME SI: CAPRASII: MRIS : ET: S (AN) C (T) I: PETR (I): QV (A) M OFER: EIS DEM: S (AN) C (T) IS: It could say something like: St. Calminius built a third abbey , with the name Mauziacum (today's Mozac), in the diocese of Arvernensius (today's Auvergne), in honor of St. Caprasius (Caprais) and St. Peter, which were offered to him.
Furthermore, the burials of Calminius and Namadia are shown in wonderful stylized images. The souls of the deceased, with Calminius in the form of a little naked person who is received by angels in Paradise, and at the same time his body is laid in a magnificent grave on earth.
On the last field is an abbot of Mozac, named Peter, who stands between a deacon and a sub- deacon and reads a mass. The inscription reads: PETRUS ABBAS MAUZIACUS FECIT CAPSAM PRECIO [SAM]: The Abbot Peter von Mozac made this valuable sarcophagus . This could be an important clue for a more accurate dating. In the 12th and 13th centuries, however, many abbots bore this name. Historians first agreed on an abbot in the 12th century and later on one from the 13th century. At the time there was a tendency to rejuvenate medieval works of art. The last decision was made on the Abbot Peter III. by Mozac, who held the office from 1168 to 1181.
One gable end of the shrine shows the Virgin Mary, the other the St. Austremonius, whose relics are kept in Mozac. The gables are said to be perhaps the most beautiful parts of the shrine, on which the Limoges enamellers have shown the mastery of their craft in form and color feel. The ridge of the shrine is crowned by a gilded comb, which consists of around 60 miniatures of round-arched arcades.
The shrine is exhibited today in a closely-meshed cabinet on the gable wall of the southern arm of the transept.
- Gallery of the enamel shrine
Creation and construction of the Mozac Abbey
Christ in the mandorla and the four evangelist symbols
Christ crucified with Mary and John
The apostles Matthias, Thomas and Peter
The apostles Andrew, James and Paul
St. Austremonius, evangelist of the Auvergne
The virgin with the child
St. Calminius
Reliquary of St. Austremonius
The simple, polychrome wooden shrine, which contains the bones of St. Austremonius , has the same dimensions . It is dated to the 16th to 17th centuries. The paintings depict the twelve apostles and are marked with “C. Mayre fecit ” signed.
Today it is located in the barred chapel on the south side of the nave in the 4th yoke.
Other parts of the church treasury
In the 19th century, a wonderful processional cross belonged to the church treasure, but it was sold more than 50 years ago.
There was also a valuable Byzantine silk fabric, probably wrapped in the relics of St. Austremonius. At the beginning of the 20th century it was given to the Historical Museum of Textiles in Lyon .
Together with the shrine of St. Austremonius, a precious monstrance is exhibited next to some chalices.
literature
- Ulrich Rosenbaum: Auvergne and Massif Central. Cologne [1981] 1989, pp. 81–82, Figs. 14–20, ISBN 3-7701-1111-7 .
- Bernhard Craplet: Romanesque Auvergne. Echter Verlag , Würzburg 1992, pp. 140-185, fig. 56-68, ISBN 3-429-01463-8 . (He used the place name Mozat.)
Web links
- French pictures
- Historic Club of Mozac, aerial view
- Paroisse Notre-Dame des Sources au Pays Riomois on the website of the Archdiocese of Clermont
Coordinates: 45 ° 53 '26.2 " N , 3 ° 5' 40.5" E