Saint-Père (Yonne)
| Saint-Pere | ||
|---|---|---|
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| region | Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | |
| Department | Yonne | |
| Arrondissement | Avallon | |
| Canton | Joux-la-Ville | |
| Community association | Avallon, Vezelay, Morvan | |
| Coordinates | 47 ° 28 ' N , 3 ° 46' E | |
| height | 142-385 m | |
| surface | 15.28 km 2 | |
| Residents | 310 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 20 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 89450 | |
| INSEE code | 89364 | |
| Website | http://www.saint-pere.fr/ | |
 Saint-Pere |
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Saint-Père (often: Saint-Pere-sous-Vezelay ) is a French commune in the Yonne department in the region of Bourgogne Franche-Comté . It is assigned to the canton of Joux-la-Ville and the Arrondissement of Avallon .
geography
The community with 310 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) is located in the north-western tip of the Morvan , only two and a half kilometers below the pilgrimage site of Vézelay , where it is on the Cure in a basin .
The area's groundwater crosses salty clay minerals on its way and then encounters the impermeable granite massif of the Morvan. Since two major faults intersect in Saint-Père , it emerges there and forms the salt springs of Saint-Pere-sous-Vézelay.
history
The excavations in 1934 revealed that the area had already been settled in the Neolithic Age and that the salt springs were already in use at that time because of their table salt content . The Celts established on site around 900 BC. A necropolis , in the 1st century BC. The site became a Celtic spring sanctuary and the Romans built thermal baths after the conquest of Gaul .
Girart de Roussillon , Count of Vienne , and his wife Berthe founded a Benedictine abbey in the region in 858/859 . The convent for women was built in Saint-Père and the abbey for men in Pothières . But already in the year 873 the monasteries were plundered and completely devastated by the Normans . The predators, known for their excellently built ships, used the watercourses of the Seine , the Yonne and finally the Cure. The nuns and monks then re-established themselves on the hill above Saint-Père - in Vézelay. At the beginning of the 13th century, construction of the Église Notre-Dame began. When the Saint-Pierre church (from which the place name Saint-Père is derived) burned down during the Second Huguenot War in 1567, Notre-Dame became the new parish church. From the middle of the 14th century, the royal salt shelf was in effect in France and in the 15th century the salt springs of Saint-Père were filled in to stop the black market.
Population development
| year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residents | 377 | 402 | 348 | 356 | 348 | 385 | 374 |
Attractions
Notre-Dame church
The church Église Notre-Dame de Saint-Père is built in the Burgundy Flamboyant style and is considered a masterpiece of this late Gothic style . The three-aisled church with its 50 meter high bell tower was built in the 13th century and has been a listed monument since 1840 as a monument historique . The two chapels were in the 14./15. and the narthex added in the 15th century. The iconography of the church is not very revealing, but inside you can find the rather worn portrait of a miser holding his wallet hanging around his neck. On the left and right he is flanked by a dragon that seems to bite off his ears. This symbol can be seen in two ways: the man plays deaf, although he definitely has the means to help (egoism) or the man is so fixated on his belongings that he forgets to protect himself - himself to do something good (greed as obsessive-compulsive disorder). The open narthex is the most generously equipped. For more than two centuries, sculptors have been able to realize their ideas here and stonemasons have been able to demonstrate their craftsmanship. When entering the covered narthex, you can see two statuettes in half relief , which are supposed to represent Girart de Roussillon and his wife Berthe or his daughter Eve. They are considered to be the founders of the former Saint-Père Abbey.
Bell tower and narthex of Notre-Dame
Covered narthex
Inside the church
Negro slave as a console
Saint Pierre with the old cemetery
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Remains of the Saint Pierre church and old churchyard
Approx. 100 m south of the Église Notre-Dame and about 20 meters from the war memorial of Saint-Père, the remains of the former church of Saint Pierre can be seen behind an inconspicuous stone wall. The church, built in the 11th century, was abandoned after the damage suffered in the Huguenot Wars and left to decay. The area once occupied by the nave was converted into a churchyard at the end of the 16th century, which served the commune of Saint-Père as a burial place until the opening of the new cemetery.
Salt springs
The archaeological site Site archéologique des Fontaines Salées de Saint-Père is located in the south of the municipality on the D958 route départementale in the direction of Foissy-lès-Vézelay along the Cure. The slightly salty water, which also contains traces of the inert gases nitrogen , helium and radon , bubbles out of two crevices in the earth. The site was discovered by the archaeologist René Louis in 1934 when he was actually looking for an old battle site. The excavations dragged on until 1964. Since then, the facility has been open to the public in the summer months against payment of an entrance fee. Thanks to a newly installed pump, the water can be fed to one of the wells. The site has been a listed building since 1942.
The springs have been exploited since the late Neolithic; by evaporating the brine , crystalline common salt was obtained. Only a few wooden Küvelagen remain from this period , which thanks to the radiocarbon method and dendrochronology date back to 2238 BC. Could be dated. Nineteen wells have been identified, fourteen of which are still visible today.
For the Celts, the site was around 900 BC. A spring sanctuary, which was equipped with a stone circle . During the excavations, a grave was found that could be assigned to the Hallstatt period.
Roman thermal baths existed on site from the 1st to the 3rd century. These , like large parts of Gaul, were devastated during the invasion of the Franks and Alemanni in 256/257. There were separate baths for women and men; the place was not insignificant for the Romans, as it was on a road that opened up an important mining mine and a foundry. At the beginning of the 4th century, the Gauls settled again in Saint-Père and local craftsmen partially repaired the ruins. For the salting perishable foods they won Sole and built simple baths to treat skin diseases. But already around the year 355, Alamanni invaded the region again and destroyed the facilities. The residents sought refuge in the forests or near fortified towns in the region. After order was restored, only salt production remained.
During the validity of the salt shelf until the 18th century, no salt was allowed to be extracted in Saint-Père. In the 15th century, the monks of Vézelay secured the salt monopoly. On November 29, 1680, King Louis XIV forbade the removal and use of salt from local springs on the threat of a nine-year galley penalty (women were punished ) and an additional 500 livre fine. Vivid descriptions from that time suggest three things: The salt tax of the authorities was extremely unpopular, the population was not allowed to exploit their regional treasures and, on top of that, was forced - since salt is essential - to purchase more expensive goods from a distance; the peasants were not always deterred by the draconian punishments, and delinquents caught often met with leniency. For example, the residents of Précy-le-Moux stormed the springs in February 1692 at 10 a.m., accompanied by dogs and equipped with hot tubs , large clay vessels and barrels. In March of the same year, around thirty residents of Saint-Père violated the salt monopoly. They were followed, but only the little servant Toinette Pouillot was arrested and interrogated. She said succinctly: "I need this brine to cook my soup".
Ruins of the Roman baths
Collection basin for the brine
Source sanctuary of the Celts
Palaestra of the Roman baths
Caldarium of the Roman thermal baths
Archaeological Museum
The Musée archéologique de Saint-Père is next to the church. It is housed in a remarkable rectory from the 17th century. The exhibits are distributed over three rooms, structured thematically. The first room is dedicated to the prehistoric times of the salt springs. The second room documents the thermal baths and presents votive offerings from the Gallo-Roman period (mainly ancient coins found in the fountain) and the third room holds information about the Notre Dame church.
The ticket to visit the salt springs is also valid for the Archaeological Museum. In 2011 the combined ticket cost € 4 for adults and € 1.60 for children under the age of twelve.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie - General and applied geology including deposit geology , regional geology , issues 1–4. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, 1961.
- ↑ Bourgogne - Le Guide vert , p. 316. Michelin (Travel House Media), Munich, 2009.
- ↑ Entry No. PA00113834 in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French).
- ↑ Bulletin de la Société nivernaise des lettres, sciences et arts , Vol. 1, pp. 74ff. I. - M. Fay, Nevers, 1863.
- ^ Sophie Leroy-Specht, "L'ancienne église de Saint-Père-sous-Vézelay", Archéologia, 85 (Août 1975), p. 8-12. Further evidence and photographs on the websites [1] and [2] . The area is not generally accessible, but can be seen through a door grille.
- ↑ a b c d e Site archéologique des Fontaines Salées in the French language Wikipedia
- ↑ Entry no. PA00113688 in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ^ Jean-Pierre Fontaine: Les mystères de l'Yonne , p. 276.De Borée, Romagnat, 1957.
