St-Michel (La Garde-Adhémar)
The Catholic parish church of Saint-Michel is located in La Garde-Adhémar , a French commune in the Drôme department in the landscape Dauphiné in the region Auvergne Rhône-Alpes . The old town crowns the hill rising steeply from the Rhone plain, which lies about two kilometers east of a tributary of the Rhone and about twenty kilometers south of the city of Montélimar.
history
Today's municipality of La Garde Adhemar was after the devastating Saracen invasions , probably on 10/11. Century, founded on the top of the hill that was previously located at its foot. The partly well-preserved remains of the fortifications obviously date from this time. During the Middle Ages it was an important fortress of the Adhémar family.
Even before today's church was built, there was already a chapel on the hill, which is mentioned in a papal bull from 1105 as being there.
The construction of the church is dated around the middle of the 12th century. It can be seen as a prime example of Provençal Romanesque, although strictly speaking it lies on the edge of the Dauphiné .
The church consecrated to the Archangel Michael belonged to a priory of the Benedictine abbey in Tournus . The south-facing door in yoke two of the side aisle could indicate a former convent building that was attached to it.
The church has been a protected monument ( Monument historique ) since 1862 .
building
Dimensions without buttresses: taken from the floor plan and extrapolated
- Overall length: 23.10 m
- Width of the nave: 16.40 m
- Inner width of the central nave: 3.70 m
- Height of central nave: 14 m
Outward appearance
The light-colored ashlar masonry is predominantly made of medium-sized formats in a regular bond without mortar. The component corners and window edges are reinforced from larger stone in alternating lengths. The south aisle and the apses are smaller in size and built with mortar in regular layers.
Longhouse
The three-aisled and two-bay nave extends from the western facade to the transept with crossing and bell tower.
The central nave protrudes clearly over the pent roofs of the side aisles and is covered with a pitched roof just under thirty degrees. The roof surfaces are covered with gray stone slabs, the eaves slabs of which rest on a strongly projecting eaves cornice and protrude slightly beyond it. The visible side of the cornice is wide beveled and adorned with a three-tier, slightly profiled ornament of repeating small-format geometric shapes. The ends of the eaves cornices are routed horizontally across the facade and then merge into the roughly identically shaped sloping cornices , which, however, are decorated with other very delicate floral ornaments.
The upper cladding of the south wall of the central nave has a slender, arched window, the walls of which are widened, in the middle of each yoke directly on the ridge of the pent roof. The upper slopes of the north wall are completely closed, a protection against the cold mistral to which the church is particularly exposed due to its exposed location.
The side aisles are covered by pent roofs with a somewhat steeper slope, with stone slabs like the main nave. Your eaves cornices, however, simply remain right-angled without decoration. These, too, are led around horizontally on the facade. The verges of the pent roofs have cornices similar to those of the main roof. In the outer wall of the south aisle, two slender arched windows are recessed in the first and second yoke in the upper wall area, which roughly correspond to those of the main nave, which are separated by a wide pillar. In the second yoke there is also the door, which is slightly shifted to the east from the center of the yoke. Its opening is rectangular and is delimited at its reveals by long, smooth and quite wide stone. Horizontal ashlars protrude into the upper corners of the opening, the corners of which are grooved. At the top, the door opening is covered by a high, smooth lintel beam that extends to the outer edges of the reveal pillars. A semicircular niche the width of the door opening is cut out above the lintel beam, which is covered by wedge stones.
The division of the first two bays and the transept are marked on the wall of the south aisle by sturdy buttresses, the sloping top sides of which lead to just below the eaves. Due to the subsequent additions to the north aisle, neither openings nor buttresses are visible, except for the western one.
The west wall, also the facade, of the nave shows the interior structure and extension of the ships and their heights.
The apse on the facade is unusual for Romanesque architecture in the south of France; a motif that is common in the northern Alpine architecture of the early Middle Ages. Its floor plan is on a semicircle in almost the same size as the choir apse. It is covered by half a conical roof in the slope of the aisle roofs. Its eaves cornice has roughly the same shape as that of the main nave, but has a floral decoration similar to that of its verges. The only opening in the west apse is the arched one in the main portal, which is flanked on the sides by angular pillars and on the top by a “saddle roof” flush with the surface. The western apse here forms a kind of narthex .
On both sides of this apse, in the head walls of the side aisles, a slender, arched window is cut out about in the middle, about the same size as the others in the nave.
Above in the middle of the gable wall of the facade is the only decorative window in the church. Slightly set back from the surface of the facade, there is a slender, arched window opening, the walls of which are widened. The side and top edges of the opening are divided into generous wall recesses, in which an archivolt is embedded flush with the surface . To the side of the opening are smooth columns in the setbacks, which are equipped with capitals with floral decorations and profiled bases on square plinths . Strong transom plates are placed over the capitals and only protrude on the inside. The bevels of their lower visible edges are delicately profiled, their narrow insides are decorated with vertical, sharp-edged grooves that are lined up like a comb. The inner edge of the archivolt arch, made of long curved wedge stones, is bevelled and profiled several times. The archivolt is surrounded by a roof-like structure at a certain distance, which consists of smooth angular pilasters on both sides that reach up to the upper edge of the archivolt's capitals and are crowned there by a capital decorated with vegetal flowers. Their profiled bases stand on a setback of the facade wall that extends over the entire width of the wall. These capitals are covered by warriors, the visible edges of which are beveled and delicately decorated, similar to the verge cornices of the facade. Similar cornice profiles end on top of the fighters, which the archivolt hand over like a gable roof.
The facade ridge is crowned by a stone cross, a kind of paw cross in a circle from which eight rays emerge all around.
On the outer wall of the north aisle, almost the entire length of an annex was built in later times, the pent roofs of which sometimes reach just below the eaves of the aisle, but sometimes also remain under the eaves at a slight distance.
Transept and bell tower
The transept does not have any overhangs of its arms against the longitudinal walls of the aisles. Their monopitch roofs and walls are extensions of the aisles in terms of shape and material. Two arched window openings are cut out in the southern outer wall, which correspond to those in the aisle wall in yokes one and two. On the north-eastern corner of the transept, the buttress is replaced by a staircase with a spiral staircase, the pent roof of which protrudes well beyond that of the aisle and which extends above the aisle roof up to the tower and then further up.
In the center of the transept, the base of the crossing tower rises high, which has an almost square floor plan, the upper area of which houses the crossing dome. This is located above the three slender arched windows on the north, east and south sides. This tower base protrudes with its east wall in the plan slightly in front of the east walls of the transept arms. It closes horizontally all around, at a height that almost reaches the height of the upper aisle over the central nave eaves.
The actual bell tower rises on the base of the tower with two octagonal storeys, four of which are set back slightly behind the sides of the base.
On the lower floor there is a strong three-quarter round smooth column on each of the eight corners, which is crowned by a floral decorated capital. Above that, the capital is closed off by a warrior, the bevel of which is delicately decorated, similar to the cornices on the west facade. The fighter bends in the middle, at the angle of the edges of the octagon. These continue as cornices at the same height on the wall surfaces between the capitals and fighters, which, however, is designed as a beveled cantilever cornice with the well-known delicate decorations. Underneath there are simple profiles at the height of the capital. This touches the outer vertex of the archivolt set into the wall below, made of slender semicircular pillars, which are equipped with floral carved capitals and profiled bases. Their cantilevered beveled fighters carry an arch, the outer beveled visible edge of which is again finely decorated as is known. Behind the pillars, smooth, sharp-edged wall strips protrude on each side, which flank the opening of the sound arcade. These continue above simple fighters as a bow that closes the opening on the top. Three horizontal, outwardly sloping sound lamellas are clamped between the reveals.
The upper tower floor is not quite as high as the lower one. The tower corners are bent instead of columns in the middle and with fluting decorated pilasters dressed that as deep as the Apply columns. They are also equipped with capitals and bases, like the columns. The capitals, instead of clasps, have a wide cantilever ledge around the entire turn, which is supported on each octagon side by three corbels, which are fluted on the front. In the wall panels below there are almost the same archivolts and sound openings, only less high, as on the first floor. But there are only two sound lamellas in each opening.
The stone spire has the shape of an octagonal pyramid, the sides of which are inclined by about 50 degrees. They connect at the bottom with another cantilevered cornice on the tower and are covered with stone slabs. Their edges are marked with slim round profiles, which at their lower ends stand on plates that are carried by human heads. The sphere in the ridge of the helmet bears a metal cross.
The closed stair tower rises above the northeast corner of the tower base to the first floor of the tower, where it covers two sound arcades.
Choir head
From the east wall of the transept and the tower base emerge three apses of the choir head, all of which stand on semicircular ground plans. The choir apse is the largest, both in width and in height. The semicircular walls of the apses each have half-conical roofs, roughly at the slope of the ship roofs. The roofs of the narrower side apses remain below the heights of the eaves of the choir apse. A slender, arched window with flared walls is cut out in the center of the apse walls. A slender little round-arched window is cut out above the roof of the side apses, which additionally illuminates the aisle arms. The simple two-tier eaves cornices are made of long ashlar stones that follow the curve of the apses exactly. The stone slabs of the roofing are also rounded accordingly.
Interior
Longhouse
The three-aisled and two-bay basilical interior is entered via the main portal and an unusual west apse, in the manner of a narthex. This is followed by the central nave, which is significantly higher than the side aisles, and is covered by a barrel vault slightly pointed at the apex , a structural suggestion from Burgundy . The vaults merge into the walls without a break. Its slim proportions give the room a consistent striving for height. The reduced incidence of light due to the lack of windows in the northern upper storey effectively underlines the solemn atmosphere of this church.
The subdivision into the two yokes and also to the transept is done by strong belt arches with a right-angled cross-section , which stand on pillars of the same dimension. Their arch approaches are marked by simple fighters. The similarly dimensioned belt arch in the west wall is significantly lower than the yoke-dividing one. In the upper area of the partition walls, slightly pointed, round-arched blind arcades are embedded, the apices of which are arranged at the level of the vaults. Their widths are slightly smaller than those of the yokes, so that they act as sharp-edged wall offsets in the lower area next to the wall pillars. The arches of the blind arcades are also marked with fighters. The slightly pointed arched arcades of the passages in the aisles are arranged much lower. Their edges are broken up into sharp-edged setbacks that correspond to those of the previous one. Since these setbacks are repeated on the opposite sides in the aisles, the inner arches and wall templates in the arcades are given the same dimensions as the wall templates and belt arches in the central nave. The pillar cross-sections are therefore symmetrical on all sides.
The side aisles, significantly lower than the central nave, are covered by half barrel vaults, the apexes of which lean against the partition walls. As in the central nave, they are separated by the same but only half girdle arches that stand on both sides on pillars of the same cross-section, the arches of which are again marked by warriors. Here, too, there are again the well-known blind and arcade arches with setbacks on the partition walls. The outer walls of the aisles are structured in each yoke by twin blind arcades. Their lateral setbacks in relation to the wall pillars correspond to those already known from the partition walls. Two round arches extend between them, the apex of which extends to the vault-free vaults. They stand on the side of the setbacks and on the inside together on a sculpted corbel, the arches of which are marked with profiled fighters. In the center of the arched fields are the two windows in each yoke, which are familiar from the outside. There is one such window in each of the eastern head walls of the aisles. In yoke two of the south aisle there is the second access door, from the former convent building that was obviously attached to this. In the north aisle, a round-arched passage was broken in both yokes of the former outer wall, which leads into a side chapel with a rectangular floor plan.
Gallery interior of the nave
Central nave, northern partition
south aisle, forward
south aisle, yoke 1, from the central nave
south aisle, south portal
north aisle, chapel in Joch 1
north aisle, chapel in yoke 2
Transept with crossing
The two transept arms basically represent extensions of the aisles, with the half barrel vaults and the two windows in the southern arm. In the northern arm, a doorway to a sacristy was probably broken with the extension. Right next to it is the door to the stairwell of the spiral staircase that leads to the bell tower.
The crossing almost corresponds to the yokes of the central nave, but without the vault there. Instead, it is vaulted high above by an eight-sided trumpet dome. Not far below this, a slender, arched window is cut out in the north, east and south walls. In the east walls of the transept arms, small, arched windows are cut out above the apse arcades.
Choir head
The east wall of the transept opens after the crossing with a round arched arcade, the edges of which are set back, into the significantly larger choir apse. The semicircular arcade wall merges into half a domed dome. The start of the vault is marked by a protruding transom profile that extends beyond the setbacks. The smaller apses in the transept arms have the same shape.
Roman finds
In the church St-Michel de La Garde-Adhémar you two sculpted stones issued from the Roman era, both in neighboring Val des Nymphes have been discovered (Valley of the Nymphs), which now houses the remains of the Priory du Val des Nymphes well are preserved.
One with a widened base and top is obviously the stele of a votive altar , whose Latin inscription: “Matris / Nymphis / […] o […] o / ernus / Poly [ca] rpus / u (otum) s (oluit) [l ( ibens)] m (erito). ”indicates a dedication“ To the mothers and the nymphs ”.
The second is said to be a Roman gravestone, the Latin inscription of which was deciphered as follows: "D (iis) M (anibus) / [...]".
literature
- Guy Barruol, Jean-Maurice Rouquette: Routes through the Romanesque Provence . Echter Verlag, Würzburg 1993, ISBN 3-429-01506-5 , p. 91.
- Jean-Maurice Rouquette: Provence novels I . Zodiaque, 2nd edition, La Pierre-qui-Vire 1980, pp. 61-69.
- Thorsten Droste : Dauphiné and Haute-Provence. Discovery trips between the Rhône and the Alps, from Lyon to the Verdon Gorge . DuMont, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7701-2408-1 , p. 89-90 .
- Thorsten Droste : DuMont art travel guide: Provence . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-7701-1727-1 , p. 66 .
Web links
- St-Michel (La Garde-Adhémar) Description as Monument historique in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French text)
Coordinates: 44 ° 23 ′ 33.9 ″ N , 4 ° 45 ′ 8 ″ E