St Julien Priory Church (Chauriat)
The former priory church of St-Julien in Chauriat is one of the jewels of Romanesque church architecture in Auvergne . Church construction has been classified as a monument historique since 1840 .
location
The church is located on the market square in the center of Chauriat at an altitude of almost 400 meters above sea level. d. M.
Building history
The founding of the church, built in the 12th century, goes back to a Benedictine priory of the - no longer existing - Abbey of Sauxillanges . In the 15th century - probably after building damage caused by a previous earthquake - the Romanesque ambulatory choir was replaced by a simple Gothic new building, the narrow windows of which almost entirely dispensed with tracery ; The brick columns and the pointed barrel vaults of the central nave also date from that time.
architecture
West facade
The originally largely undecorated west facade is similar to that of the collegiate church of St-Victor et Ste-Couronne in Ennezat . It is divided into three vertical registers by four buttresses . In the middle is the tympanum-free entrance portal with a beautiful arch made of different colored stones, which, however, comes from the imagination of the 19th century. About three meters above there is an arched window. The west facade ends in a false gable .
South facade
The south facade was and is the real jewel of the church: The three eastern nave bays have high blind arcades over which a small-scale ornamental decoration (stars etc.) made of different colored stones unfolds.
The gable of the south transept is the culmination of the Auvergnatian delight in decoration: large square fields appear over five arcade arches with columns in between, which, however, stand like diamonds on top. Inside the fields are checkerboard patterns (also in diamond shape) and star motifs . The top of the false gable is divided into three fields; the middle one is adorned with a cross of four stars.
It is often assumed that the medieval builders of the 12th century took the Roman mosaic art as a model when developing their ornaments. However, there is still no proof of this, because so far only sparse remains of ancient buildings have been found in the Auvergne.
Crossing tower
The final octagonal crossing tower with its double arcades is a late 19th century reconstruction based on the model of the Church of St-Saturnin . The original tower was destroyed during the French Revolution .
inner space
In contrast to the richly decorated south side of the church, the three-aisled interior offers little special. The vaults rest on massive masonry, plastered and then painted columns, which can be attributed to the renovation work of the 15th century. Only the wall of the south aisle remained in the original - there are still some figurative capitals (angels) to be seen.
The transept shows the so-called Auvergnatian cross bar or massif barlong , in which windowed arches delimit the elevated Vierungsjoch on all four sides.
meaning
The south facade of the church of St-Julien in Chauriat is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Auvergnatian Romanesque - it can be seen in some scenes of the film Les Choristes (German title: The children of Monsieur Mathieu ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Église Saint-Julien, Chauriat in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
literature
- Ulrich Rosenbaum: Auvergne and Massif Central. DuMont, Cologne 1990, p. 93 ISBN 3-7701-1111-7 .
- Patrick Perry: L'ancienne église Priorale Saint-Julien de Chauriat. in Congrès archéologique de France. 158e session. Monuments en Basse-Auvergne Grande-Limagne. 2000 . Société Française d'Archéologie, Paris 2003, pp. 123-133.
Web links
- Chauriat, Saint-Julien - photos + info (in French)
- Chauriat, Saint-Julien - photo of the south side
- Little known churches in the Auvergne (French)
- Paroisse Saint Pierre du Val d'Allier on the website of the Archdiocese of Clermont
Coordinates: 45 ° 45 ′ 4 " N , 3 ° 16 ′ 47.5" E