St-Pierre-St-Paul (Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone)
Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Maguelone is a former cathedral and abbey church on the island of Maguelone in the Hérault department in southern France in the Occitanie region .
The imposing, in the 12th and 13th centuries in the style of Romanesque as part of an extensive monastery and bishopric erected formerly fortified church building was home once one of the most influential dioceses of France. In the Antonini Itinerarium (early 3rd century!) Maguelone was already mentioned as a civitas .
The cathedral was classified as a Monument historique in 1840 and as such is a listed building .
The cultural monument and the former bishopric were used as the setting in the novel " The beautiful Magelone " from the 15th century.
location
The island of Maguelone (lat. Insula Magalona), which has been inhabited since ancient times, emerged from a former volcanic crater made of basalt rock. Around 6500 to 2500 years before Christ, a sandy spit formed along the Mediterranean coast , which stretched from Aigues-Mortes to Agde . An extensive flat sea of lagoons developed on the land side , which completely enclosed the island of Maguelone. It had been connected to the country by a dam and bridge since the Middle Ages. However, both no longer exist today. Today, Maguelone is located about 3 kilometers southeast of Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone and about 10 kilometers (as the crow flies) south of the city center of Montpellier and can be reached from the east via the Palavas-les-Flots spit. Today's visitor is impressed by the strange location of the building, which seems to be stranded like a stone ship between the sea and the lagoons, and wonders about the origins and fate of the unique structure, a mutilated fortress church robbed of its towers.
history
Visigoth origins
The fortress of a Visigoth nobleman stood on the elevated island of Maguelone, protected on all sides by the surrounding lagoon. As a result - perhaps as early as the 3rd century - a Maguelone diocese was founded.
Maguelone was mentioned as a city in the Antonini Itinerarium (early 3rd century).
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Maguelone was one of the "seven cities" after which the region was named " Septimania ", or the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis (about today's Languedoc-Roussillon ). Septimania were handed over to the control of the Visigothic Empire under King Theodoric II († 466) in 462 . The seven cities today are Elne , Agde , Narbonne , Lodève , Béziers , Nîmes and Maguelone .
The first episcopal church must have existed as early as the 6th century, as the first known bishop Boëce (also Boetius, Boèce or Boecio) from Maguelone was represented at the 3rd Council of Toledo in 589 . The sudden and late appearance of a new bishopric Maguelone seems to have been triggered by a reorganization of the province of Narbonne , which was ruled by the Visigoth kings since the 5th century. A new diocese separated from Nîmes arose from a political necessity. Counts of Maguelone had existed since the 7th century.
However, the choice of the small island off Via Domitia , on the edge of the diocese and far from any settlement (the ancient Lattes no longer existed, and Montpellier did not yet exist) remains unexplained . Was it the presence of an ancient port, as the Gaulish-Roman remains found on site suggest? Or was it because, under Roman law, the coast belonged to the ager publicus , the public area that the Visigothic rulers had appropriated?
Be that as it may, the port was quoted in the 7th century by the "Geographer of Ravenna" and its strategic location was so important that the Visigoth king Wamba († 681/683) besieged it in 673 during his campaign to recapture Narbonnais. Although nothing is known about the first cathedral of Maguelone, the discovery of sarcophagi and funerary furniture in the last century testifies to the presence of a necropolis near the sanctuary in the times of the Visigoths and Franks .
At the beginning of the 8th century, after the collapse of the Kingdom of Toledo, the island was occupied by Spanish Muslims : the Saracen port mentioned in the chronicles , the "Port Sarasin", commemorates this. To chase them away or in retaliation, Karl Martell is said to have devastated the island in 737 after the failure of the conquest of Septimania.
Under his grandson Charlemagne (French: Charlemagne) (747 or 748 - 814) the base of the hostile Moors was completely destroyed. As a result, Maguelone was almost deserted for about three hundred years. While the count settled in Melgueil , today's Mauguio (around 10 kilometers east of Montpellier) and took on this name, the bishop and clergy fled to the ancient oppidum Sextantio (today Castelnau-le-Lez on the northern outskirts of Montpellier).
It is obvious that even without the Saracen danger an insecure life continued on the island, mentioned in 798 by Theodulph , the bishop of Orleans (* around 750/760; † 821), and where four according to the "Old Chronicle" Chaplains, despite the fear of pirates, still celebrated mass.
Towards the end of the 9th century, the Counts of Maguelone / Melgueil took advantage of this situation and took possession of the diocese, controlled its income and appointed its bishops.
The battles between the Franks and Saracens, which were repeated in the 10th century, forced the remaining inhabitants of Maguelone to go to the mainland, whereby the bishop and the administration first found refuge in the newly created Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone and later in Castelnau-le-Lez .
The awakening in the 11th century: a work of the great Arnaud
In 1033, Bishop Arnaud I received from Pope Benedict IX. a bull stating that he could have the cathedral, the monastery and the necessary buildings restored. The episcopate (1030–1060) of the reform prelate and one of the numerous builders in the first Romanesque epoch was marked by his return to the island and that of the canons ( canons ).
At that time Maguelone received the special character that it was to retain throughout its history: that of a small, very strongly fortified bishopric, without spatial connection to a city and isolated from the diocese. In order to underline the will of his final return, he immediately arranged for the new construction of the cathedral, which could be consecrated a good twenty years later in 1054, as well as the convent buildings of the chapter.
Of these first Romanesque buildings, only the tower with the St. Augustine Chapel on the south side of the 12th century cathedral, in the angle between the nave and the transept, remains today. In order to defend the buildings of the bishopric with its cathedral against the attacks of the Muslims, Bishop Arnaud had them surrounded with a defensive wall, which is referred to in the chronicles as the "iron door coat". At this time he also had the island connected to the mainland with the above-mentioned embankment of a wall and a gigantic bridge over the lagoon. The structure consisted of brick pillars, which were connected by wooden walkways that could be flooded during storms. A dignitary of the chapter, the so-called "Pontanier Canon", was specially charged with monitoring and maintaining them.
Towards the end of the 11th century, the fate of the island was sealed, which was to temporarily make it a refuge for the popes who were driven out during the battle between the Holy See and the Empire. In 1085, Count Pierre I de Melgueil placed himself under the protection of the Pope, who gave his county and the bishopric as a gift to "the apostles Peter and Paul, Pope Gregory VII and his successors". In 1087 the donation was accepted from Urban II , who gave the county back to the donor as a fief in exchange for an annual interest of one ounce of gold. The bishopric was placed under the "Roman liberty", which guaranteed the free election of the bishop by the canons. The bishop also had to transfer an ounce of gold a year to Rome.
Urban II visited the island in 1096, proclaimed its church "second after that of Rome" and granted it the right to wear the papal seal, the key of St. Peter. He promised total indulgence to everyone buried in their cemetery .
The heyday of the 12th and 13th centuries
As the property of the Roman Church, Maguelone often served as a refuge for popes who had fled riot-ridden Rome and Italy throughout the 12th century.
Pope Gelasius II was welcomed here in 1118, where he received Pons de Melgueil, Abbot of Cluny, and Suger, Abbot of St-Denis. The latter, a keen observer, wrote: “It is a narrow island on which only the bishop and his clergy live with few entourage. It is humble, isolated and poor, but well fortified against the attacks of the Saracens who independently plague the sea: "
Popes Calixt II (1119), Innocent II (1130) and Alexander III stayed in Maguelone . (1163 and 1165). The latter consecrated the main altar of the cathedral in 1163, the choir apse of which had just been completed.
Despite occasional disputes between the bishop and the chapter over the division of the income or the contestation of elections (since 109 the bishop, provost , archdeacon and sacristan have been elected from among the canons) Maguelone experienced a certain prosperity for three centuries, aided by the income of the Salt pans , the fees for fishing in the lagoon and the use of the canals.
In the 12th century, wealth and prestige led to the construction of a larger cathedral, a two-storey cloister enclosed by the convent buildings, a house for the bishop and his illustrious guests and new rooms for careful visitor care, a huge undertaking that was swiftly carried out by three determined prelates the progress of which is reported in the “Ancient Chronicle of Maguelone”. Because of its exposed location on the coast, exposed to attacks by the Saracens, it was designed as a fortified church.
The main work fell during the heyday of the pilgrimages to the tomb of the apostle James the Elder in Santiago de Compostela in the first half of the 12th century, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims traveled south across the Pyrenees every year . During this time, mainly monastic communities, such as the Benedictines of Cluny, organized the pilgrimage. Four main routes and a network of secondary routes were formed, on which churches, monasteries, hospices , hostels and also cemeteries were built or expanded.
Maguelone was also a very important station on the Way of St. James on the southernmost main route of the Via Tolosana , starting in Arles , via Toulouse and Oloron further south-west through Spain, and the monastic community was able to participate in the pilgrims' willingness to donate with its new church and its relics.
The bishop Gautier de Lille (de. Walter von Lille) (1104–1129) initially had the fortified choir built from three apses with a wide transept in the first half of the 12th century . In the north of the nave, the first sections of the two-storey convent buildings were built around the spacious cloister , including the refectory (dining room), the kitchen and pantries on the ground floor and the dormitory (dormitory) of the canons on the upper floor, all of which are built on the so-called “iron door mantle” “Were protected from the 11th century.
This construction work was continued by his successor, Bishop Raymond I (1129–1158), with the erection of the main altar and the bishop's seat in the choir apse and the raising of the two defensive towers over the transept arms. In addition, the outer buttresses were connected with flying buttresses just below the height of the wall crowns , on which defense attics with battlements ( parapets ) were built, which left a little distance from the outer walls and thus became machiculis and walkways. At the same time, the convent building and the cloister were completed, for example with a large chapter house on the ground floor. A cistern and a well were built in the cloister courtyard.
The successor Bishop Jean de Montlaur (1158–1190) recognized that the old nave of the previous church was threatening to collapse. In the “Old Chronicle” it says: “When he saw that the old nave was in danger of collapsing, he asked the believers to help build the new one. He collected thirty thousand sou and in turn donated eight fathoms of wheat and wine for the workers ” . In any case, he had today's three-bay nave built with 2.50 meter thick side walls, with the defensive equipment described above. Of the old cathedral, only the St. Augustine Chapel and parts of the tower that rose above it, which at that time towered over the Wehrattiken, remained.
Towards the end of the 12th century, the canons had the gallery erected over the first two bays on barrel and groin vaults , on which the altars and the choir stalls were installed. Presumably this was done to isolate oneself while reading mass and to escape the cold and damp of the lower church in winter. The staircase, which was probably embedded in the north wall of the nave, opened up not only the gallery, but also the convent rooms on the upper floor of the cloister, including the dormitory.
At the beginning of the 13th century, presumably under Bishop Guillaume D'Autignac (or Antignac) (1203 or 1204–1216), the round of the cathedral's mighty defensive towers was supplemented by the two towers flanking the main portal on the west facade, in the south of today The now defunct St-Jean tower with the chapel of the same name, in the north the now partially collapsed bishop's tower. The cemetery, the medical supply store , the guest house, the farm buildings and the apartments of the chapter servants were surrounded by a second, considerably stronger defensive wall, with the so-called “wooden door jacket”.
In the 13th century, the diocese of Maguelone, well protected in terms of defense technology and, thanks to its bishops, a center of Catholic orthodoxy against the " heretical " Cathars , did not need to suffer from the Albigensian Crusade . The archdeacon at that time was the famous Pierre de Castelnau , Cistercian and papal legate in Languedoc , whose assassination in Saint-Gilles in 1208 sparked hostilities.
The county of Melgueil then came by marriage to Raymond VI. Count of Toulouse , who ceded it to the Pope in 1209. The count had thus lost his fiefdom . In 1215 the county was given to the Bishop of Maguelonne . In the same year the Bishop of Maguelone received the Count and was given the right to mint coins. These were the "Melgueil thalers", which were widely used throughout the Midi .
As the quarrels over Aquitaine between England and France rose after the mid-12th century, the pilgrimage declined and the wars of the 13th and 14th centuries, especially the Hundred Years War (1339-1453), brought a dramatic slump. The monasteries with pilgrim churches had to limit themselves to pilgrimages to their own relics.
Decline in the 14th and 15th centuries
Relieved of the threat from the counties of Melgueil / Toulouse, the bishops of Maguelone had to deal with two far more threatening powers: the kings of Mallorca , who ruled Montpellier, and the kings of France, whose officers with their eagerness to conquer and repeated seizures gradually destroyed the privileges and independence of the diocese .
As early as 1255, the bishop Pierre de Conques (1248–1256) had to recognize the feudal rule of the King of France over the city of Montpellier. In 1283, Bérenger de Frédol, bishop from 1263 to 1296, ceded the market town of Montpelliéret (later dissolved neighboring parish) to Philip the Fair . In 1349 King James II of Mallorca sold his rights to Montpellier to King Philip VI. , who thus became the sole ruler of the city.
In the 14th century the collegiate church of Sainte-Trinité as well as the chapel of Saint-Blaise, which served as a parish church for lay people living on the island , both in the south of the cathedral, were founded by Cardinal de Canillac.
To regulate monastic life, Bishop Jean de Vissec (1328–1334) issued reform statutes in 1331, which provide interesting information about the customs and everyday life of the canons who had to stay here (see chapter Maguelone in the Middle Ages).
Although these conditions succeeded in restoring order and regularities in canonical life, they could do little to improve the increasing attraction of Montpellier, which had become an active commercial and university town.
The Hundred Years War (1339-1453) seems to have spared Maguelone, but the isolation of the diocese and the financial crisis made his situation more difficult. The chapter's indebtedness, the conflicts between the bishop, canons and university, the absence of the prelates , who only rarely came to the island because of their duties at the papal court of Avignon , led to grievances and complaints of all kinds.
As early as the 15th century, the Bishop of Maguelone had settled in Montpellier and left the provost and the other dignitaries of the island with the secular administration of the diocese and the maintenance of services.
Such a situation appeared to the young and brilliant humanist Guillaume Pellicier (1526–1568), a former clergyman of Maguelone and protégé of Margaret of Navarre , as out of date. After he had become Bishop of Maguelone as well as counselor and ambassador of Francis I in Rome, he reached in 1536 from Pope Paul III. (1534–1549), with the support of the king, whom he had received on the island, officially moved the bishopric to Montpellier. Nevertheless, the bishops of Montpellier were buried in the cathedral until 1602.
Task in the 16th to 19th centuries
In order to underline the abandonment of the location of the bishopric, the canons should sell most of the buildings with the condition that they be demolished. This request was not carried out, so that in 1562 Protestant troops could entrench themselves. However, they were chased away by the royal troops, who then maintained a garrison there for several years . Towards the end of the 16th century, the Platter brothers, young Swiss who were studying medicine in Montpellier, visited the island of Maguelone and felt a painful sense of abandonment: the hospital and the fortress were in ruins, but the hospitality was still growing Rules of 1331 practiced.
In 1632, after the Rohan and Montmorency revolts , Richelieu received royal permission to destroy the medieval fortress "so that the insurgents could not resort to this place to disturb public order" but "without the church and the To touch the living space of the castle " . After the demolition of the fortifications and the neck of the towers only the mutilated cathedral was left, and a modest house for a "poor priests," the other service was organized by the alone.
The chapter sold the last remains of walls and natural stone from the demolition in 1708 and were then used to build the bank fortification of the canal from the Rhone to Sète, which still accompanies the lagoon today. So the last traces of the walls built in the 11th and 12th centuries against the Saracens, whose enormous extension had so impressed the Abbot Suger at the beginning of the 12th century, disappeared.
In 1720 the Turk was Mechemet Effendi, treasurer of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire , Ahmed III, and extraordinary ambassador to Louis XV. (French Louis XV) (1710–1774) the last rather involuntary illustrious guest of Maguelone. His ship was kept in quarantine because of the plague off Sète and he himself was housed in Maguelone as a token of devotion.
The Maguelone estate, which was confiscated during the Revolution (1789) and sold as national property, changed hands several times before it was bought by Frédéric Fabrège in 1852. Despite the classification of the cathedral as a "historical monument" in 1840, at that time it was in a particularly desolate and dilapidated condition. The new owner showed a passionate interest in the famous monument and developed into a detail-conscious historian and tireless savior of the existing building materials. He carried out excavations to find the foundations of the former structures and to determine the location of the medieval buildings, which were razed to the ground in 1708. He restored the cathedral, erected the altars and tombs, rebuilt the St-Blaise Chapel and planted the completely bare island with Mediterranean trees, which today add to its charm.
On June 14, 1875, the rescued cathedral was restored to ritual acts by Cardinal Montseigneur de Cabrières.
20th century until today
In 1949, Frédéric Fabrège's heiress donated the church to the diocese of Montpellier. In its wooded solitude, it remains a silent witness to an extremely eventful past and is the most beautiful example of a fortress church between Agde and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer that watched over the coast of Languedoc in the Middle Ages. The Manguelone domain has been managed by the "Les Compagnons de Maguelone" community since 1969. This is dedicated to working with disabled people according to the principle of "help through work" and currently has 84 living spaces and workplaces. Furthermore, this brotherhood has set itself the goal of preserving the cultural and ecological heritage of this island, as well as opening it up to the public. The brotherhood organizes annual music festivals and exhibitions on the island. Products such as home-made wine, jewelry, honey, etc. a. are offered for sale in a meeting place next to the cathedral. An accommodation facility is also attached to the workshops.
=== Current archaeological findings
In the second half of the last century, further excavations in the area of the monastery, but also in other parts of the island, revealed numerous Gallo-Roman remains, such as ceramics, coins, hand tools, waste, a glass from the 6th century and other things. A particularly precious discovery was the monumental fragment of an extraordinary Roman marble calendar apparently on display in a public building. Another piece of this plate was found in a grave on the choir head of another church monument from late antiquity.
In 1998 archaeological rescue excavations were carried out in an agricultural part of the island, during which the foundations of a rather extensive basilica were found, which stood in the middle of a necropolis with numerous tombs and sarcophagi inside and outside the building. Various types of burials were found, including those with decorated metal implements.
The aerial photo of the excavation site led to a reconstruction of the basilica in the form of an architectural model, which can be described as follows:
The nave of the basilica stood on a rectangular floor plan, to which a semicircular apse of equal width was attached to the top. The nave was covered with a gently sloping gable roof, the much deeper choir apse with an equally sloping half-conical roof. On both sides of the ship, flush with the surface of the ship's head wall, extended chapel extensions with a rectangular floor plan and covered by pent roofs were connected. Only on the left side of the ship was another, somewhat longer chapel with the same roof. On the other sides of the nave, including on the facade, a kind of pent-roofed cloister surrounded the building with open arcades on the outside.
The construction of the structure could be dated to the early sixth century. It then appears to have been destroyed in the late seventh or within the eighth century and its location abandoned soon thereafter. It is obviously the oldest Christian building on the island of Maguelone, which, due to numerous finds, was located within a dense settlement in which there were other public buildings.
The former structures confirm the importance of this sacred place in late antiquity, from the fifth to the eighth century, and suggest the existence of a diocese of Maguelone from the sixth century, with a large church located under the medieval cathedral.
Maguelone in the Middle Ages
The site plan drawn by Frédéric Fabrège after his excavations in the vicinity of the cathedral and the surviving “reform statutes” of Bishop Jean de Vissec from 1331 provide more detailed ideas about the bishopric and the life of its inhabitants. While the site plan shows the world of the canons, the text provides precise, occasionally also picturesque information about material life in questions of safety, nutrition, hygiene, guest reception and building maintenance.
The sixty canons lived in community, dined in the refectory and slept together in the hall of the dormitory. The provost, a dignitary of the chapter, was responsible for their provision. He had to deliver “bread made from pure wheat with no added barley” to the confreres and ensure that “the wine was pure, honest, odorless and acid-free”. With the exception of the days of fasting, Advent and Easter, the canons did not eat meat three days a week, but enjoyed so-called "misericordes" (= improved meals) on certain festive days. For example, beef and sheep, goat lamb and ham were on the menu, with figs , donuts and sweet pancakes as desserts . The rest of the time, fish was the staple food, especially eel from the lagoon.
The lower clergy, the servants, artisans, pilgrims and other guests in transit were accommodated in the outer buildings of the northern and western elm ring and protected by the outer defensive wall, the so-called "wooden door mantle". This also included two chapels, the Collegiate Church of Ste-Trinité and the Chapel of St-Blaise. The infirmary at the northern end of the cemetery, which is subordinate to the medical canon, was looked after by a doctor, or bath and barber, who cared for the sick, bleeding and shaving.
The house rules also provided for baths and ablutions. The paramedic was required to “distill rose water and keep a large vat for the sick, as well as a copper basin to combat kidney pain,” a measure that was certainly necessary in this maritime climate.
The generous hospitality that was cultivated here towards all visitors to the island was the responsibility of the manager. This was chosen by the provost on the basis of his human qualities and administrative skills. He not only had to receive, feed and house the pilgrims, poor and lepers , but also Jews and Saracens "for humane reasons". On Christian holidays, after the ritual washing of their feet , even the poor were allowed to share the canons' meal in the refectory. When the weather was bad, their food was brought to the opposite mainland side of the bridge.
The cemetery, which extends to the east and south of the cathedral, was intended for the burial of the clergy , and ultimately also for those of non-church benefactors who wanted to benefit from the papal indulgence trade . The statutes report a peculiar procedure in this regard: “When the mortal shell of a baron or a knight with a banner , coat of arms , weapons and horse is brought to the burial, his coat of arms should be hung in the cloister and his banner in the church. Arms and horse are handed over to the provost ”. The latter had to offer those involved in the funeral procession “bread, wine and food”, which were consumed standing according to custom and usage.
Within the Ulmenring, a second defensive wall, the so-called "iron door mantle" protected the canon buildings and the cathedral, which enclosed an extensive two-story cloister, such as the refectory, the kitchen, pantries, the chapter house on the ground floor and the dormitory, boiler room, and apartments of the bishop and Provost upstairs. The cloister with the convent rooms and the cathedral was a real fortress, which was also protected from the sea winds by its mass and high towers. It could only be entered on the west side via two portals: the main portal of the church, protected by two weighty defensive towers, and the portal of the convent building, in front of which a similar defensive tower rose up, over which and over the adjoining drawbridge one reached the ground floor of the convent rooms. Or "Saint-Jacques Tower" was called by the height of this tower, the "Fort" and served as a sort of lighthouse, a supervised towers , the "Bada" seafaring and the entry of vessels into the "Sarazenenhafen" of which also a horn blower who gave the "guacha" alarm and also announced the night hours. When the access doors were locked, both were provided with a basket hoisted by a rope. From the upper cloister, the canons reached the extensive gallery of the cathedral, on which they celebrated the masses.
In order to alleviate the lack of comfort in the buildings completely surrounded by water, the statutes prescribed the provost: "every year at the beginning of winter to wall up the north windows". The sacristan was obliged to cover the floor of the cathedral with boxwood branches in winter , myrtle and rosemary at Christmas , laurel and gorse at Easter . The same applied to the apartments of the scholars and the chapter house before the holidays . The summit of the accommodation was: The provost had to "ensure that mattresses with pillows and blankets are available on the gallery so that the young canons can sleep at Mette according to the old custom ".
Building
- Dimensions / floor plan
approx., without protrusions, measured from the drawing and extrapolated
- External length: 44.10 m
- Inside length: 40.70 m
- Outside width of the main nave: 15.10 m
- Main nave width inside: 14.40 m
- Outside transept length: 28.20 m
- Inside transept length: 24.10 m
- Inside transept width: 6.70 m
- Diameter of the choir apse: 9.00 m
- Ship height at the top: 19.75 m
General
The Cathedral of Maguelone has retained its massive and austere character of their fortress past, by demolishing their applied level with the wall crowns Wehrattiken has been reinforced and the nozzle of the towers in the first half of the 17th century. The so mutilated fortress church, the surroundings of which were still unwooded until the middle of the 19th century, now seems to hide its wounds behind a curtain of old trees in a park that have been tormented by the sea wind.
For reasons of efficiency and to resist the surging spray of the salt water, the outer wall cladding consists of "cold stone", a light gray to light beige, dense and very hard limestone that comes from the quarries of the Garrigue , and which was brought with great effort from the hinterland had to become. This facing consists of medium-sized, neatly cut stone and is finely grouted.
The construction of the cathedral is very characteristic of the large Romanesque naves of the Languedoc, for example the expansive proportions, thick walls, moderate lighting and the extreme sobriety of the decor carved in stone. The lack of decoration is compensated for by the quality of the masonry made of medium-sized stone masonry made of shell limestone, with a magnificent ocher-colored patina. Also noteworthy is the perfect craftsmanship of the huge, slightly ogival barrel vault. The very narrowly layered vault is designed without a roof structure to support a heavy slab roof.
Outward appearance
Main nave
Apart from the lack of defenses, the long main nave appears to be quite intact. It is covered in its entire length from the west facade to the choir bay by a gable roof with a pitch of about twenty degrees, which is covered with light stone slabs that protrude slightly at the eaves. According to the southern tradition, the stone slabs are placed directly on the outer vaulted surfaces of the ship. Above the longitudinal walls of the ship, the entire length of the roof surface is arranged a short distance lower and the vertical height offset can be seen as a narrow wall strip. On the verges , the roof coverings extend to their outer edges.
South side
The ship's four buttresses still standing on the south wall, barely half a meter below the eaves. Shortly below, you can still see the beginnings of the candle arches , which the former military attica carried at a distance from the outer wall. In the middle between the buttresses in the upper half of the wall, slot-like, arched windows are embedded, which also underline the defensive character of the building.
The stump of the St Augustin Tower barely reaches half the height of the wall and above it still shows the stepped remains of the tower masonry that formerly reached high above the Wehrattika. In the middle of the tower on the south side, a significantly smaller round arched slot window is cut out at almost the same height as in the nave.
Transept arms
The adjoining Sainte-Marie tower above the south transept chapel once handed over the defense attic, but today it remains almost two meters below the eaves of the ship. This is where the ridge of a younger pent roof , inclined about twenty degrees, joins, which protrudes slightly on its three free sides opposite the wall surfaces. It is covered with red hollow bricks in Roman format, which are also called monk-nun bricks . The corners of both towers and the center of the Sainte-Marie tower are stiffened with buttresses, those of the St-Augustin tower are particularly strong. Just to the left of the central pillar, another arched slit window has been cut out, as is the case on the east side of the tower, shifted slightly to the right from the center, to illuminate the apse of the transept chapel.
The tower above the southern arm of the transept corresponds to the one above the northern one, the so-called Tower of the Holy Sepulcher, whose floor plans are mirror-inverted. In the north, however, the western buttress and the one on the gable wall axis are dispensed with. The north tower has obviously retained its original height. The eaves of its gable roof, inclined about twenty degrees, the ridge of which is oriented transversely to the main ship axis, are about two to three meters above the ship's eaves. The roof is covered like that of the main nave. At about the level of the eaves of the main nave, the walls of the tower recede slightly. The offset is marked by a circumferential cantilever profile. The buttress on the northeast edge also ends at this height. Shortly above the setback, a round-arched passage is cut out roughly in the middle on the west and east sides. On the east side of the tower, under the upper end of the buttress and opposite to the choir apse, arches can be seen, which suggests that these towers had the same defensive facilities as the ship and choir, consisting of parapets, parapets, machicolations and battlements. They could be entered from inside the towers through the passages mentioned above.
South. Transept arm, buttress
Connection to the south arm of the transept to the choir apse
Choir apse u. north transept arm
north transept arm, east wall
Choir head
In contrast to the semicircular inner apse, the outside of the choir head has a floor plan of half a dodecagon . On its six corners are four buttresses with a rectangular cross-section, slender and radially aligned, and on each of its two outer corners one broad buttress with a butt-angled outline. They reach up about 1.50 meters below the eaves of the half-twelve-sided pyramid roof and are marked there with a cantilever cornice. Immediately above there are arches that originally carried the Schwibbogen with the already known defensive structures. They were at the same height as those of the towers and their battlements merged into one another. The half-twelve-sided pyramid roof of the choir apse is covered with the stone slabs of the main nave, the lower row of which rests on a slightly protruding cornice. The eastern section of the choir apse and transept has a slightly protruding base about half a meter high above the ground level.
North side
The north side of the cathedral is not open to the public except for an exit onto a modern “balcony” at the level of the grandstand. This is located at the level of the floor of the upper floor of the former cloister. Not far and to the west of it you can see the inner access to the bishop's tower, on the upper floor of which the bishop's apartment was located. In any case, the spacious, rectangular two-storey cloister connected to the north wall of the nave, which was enclosed on the other sides by the two-storey convent rooms. Of this, however, only a lower, ground floor vaulted hall has been preserved, which cannot be seen. On the north wall one can still see, in addition to holes from former pillar connections, above all five semicircular contours of the vault of the cloister upper floor, probably a groin vault, and also slots from roof connections. From this you probably know that this cloister had two floors.
On the north wall, three doors on the upper floor are partially still functional, the western one was and is at the same time the access to the gallery and to the stairs leading to the ground floor of the church (see interior). The edging of this double-leaf door is structurally very similar to that of the main portal. However, all elements are smoothed without structure or even sculpture and, apart from the tympanum, are flush with the surface and aligned with the adjacent masonry. The rectangular door opening is bordered by sharp-edged masonry reveals. The uppermost flat stone layer protrudes on both sides as a cantilever console into the upper corners of the opening. A strong, monolithic lintel rests on top of this, supporting a broad, round arched arcade arch made of large wedge stones. The semicircular smooth tympanum recedes about two fingers wide. A good bit further east and three steps higher there is another single-leaf doorway. It was and still is today the access to a small high chapel, which opens into the third yoke of the ship (see inside). It is probably a bit higher because the stairs lead up to the gallery below. This door is also framed in a similar way to the previous one. Again further east, almost next to the transept wall, the third door is installed, which corresponds to the previous one, but is on the same level as the first. You can use it to reach the connecting passage between the aforementioned high chapel and the tower above the northern arm of the transept. Another hole in this wall is not a door, but a wall breakout to which one of the vaulted pillars of the cloister upper floor connected.
The addition of the convent building, which was probably equipped with similar defensive elements as the church, made it superfluous on its north wall. Accordingly, there are also no buttresses that supported the defensive structures.
Facade towers
The main portal in the middle of the ship's facade was once flanked by two strong towers with a rectangular floor plan. The resulting "gorge" in front of the actual entrance was about 4.50 meters wide and 12.00 meters long, and between the buttresses it was even narrower. Probably both towers were originally as high as the current tower above the north transept arm. The southern St-Jean tower has completely disappeared today. He hid the chapel of the same name on the ground floor. The ground floor and the first floor were each connected to the nave by a door, both of which are still preserved today, the upper one is rounded and the lower one is rectangular. The one on the ground floor is bricked up on the inside.
The northern bishop's tower, which is still four-story today, has been partially preserved except for its "crown" (probably the last floor above the Wehrattiken) and the collapsed vaulted ceiling. Like the southern one, it was built at the beginning of the 13th century from large, erosion-prone yellow mussel limestone blocks, which today show strong signs of weathering.
He also hid a chapel on the ground floor (presumably a “bishop's chapel”) and on the upper floor, presumably also on other floors, the bishop's apartment, which is known to be heated with a large Gothic fireplace. The bishop's apartment was in direct connection with the upper floor of the cloister, where the other apartments of the higher-ranking clergy were also housed, and from which one could get to the cathedral tribune without height offset. The strange thickening of the upper third of the buttresses, which widen conically upwards, probably has to do with the former defensive elements, the remains of which have been found all over the structure. On these towers, too, there were parapets supported by flying buttresses at a distance in front of the walls, which required the pillars to have a corresponding template depth. This pillar depth would have narrowed the width of the access to the main portal too much in the lower area, so that it was significantly reduced there.
What is striking is the rather generous windowing of the south and west sides in the walls of the bishop's tower. Presumably, the former slot-like defensive openings here, around the 15th century, when firearms came up and destroyed the structural defenses, were enlarged, thus transforming the floors into comfortable refuges.
In any case, when the two towers still existed, the area in front of the main portal was the best defended of the whole building. The parapets and machicolations on the tower walls were supplemented by another one at the same height above the main portal, which were connected to one another. Today's Schwibbogen is a more recent restoration that cannot be seen in older photos. In any case, attackers who penetrated the corridor in front of the portal had no chance against the hidden archers or crossbowmen in the tower floors and against the hot pitch and other throwing material poured down through the machiculi.
A medium-sized round-arched window is cut out in the facade wall below the Schwibbogen. An archivolt made of a strong, curved round rod, which stands on two pillars of the same diameter, which are equipped with plant-carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases, stands in a back offset to the side and top of the reveal edge. Shortly above this, a much smaller round-arched window is cut out, which is equipped with a similar archivolt in a setback. This window was at times completely covered by the parapet. On the gable ridge sits a bell suspended in a metal bracket, which is equipped with a fan-shaped counterweight.
Main portal
- Rough structure
The two-winged main portal in the facade with its modest dimensions turns out to be a highly heterogeneous arrangement, which is composed of Romanesque sculptural elements in different colored marble of ancient origin from three different eras. The portal with its borders is precisely fitted into the clear width between the buttresses of the towers.
The portal opening is rectangular and is delimited on both sides by sharp-edged posts of different shapes, which can be seen immediately when it is re-used. The right one does not even reach the full height and stands on an almost square stone. The side reveals are closed at the top by console stones of different widths that protrude into the upper corners of the door opening. The high relief of a head portrait is worked into the cove-like rounded shape .
Between the side posts and the buttresses, two stone slabs of almost the same width with bas-reliefs made of white marble are fitted, which one can see that they originally belonged to a larger relief. They are delimited horizontally at the bottom by associated profile strips. At the top, it defines a similar profile, but in the shape of a segment and rising from the outside to the inside by about thirty degrees. On the vertical sides, they do not limit any associated profiles, rather they appear to be cut off there.
A rectangular door lintel, which is very long and strong in relation to the narrow portal opening, rests on the bracket stones described above. It was made from light beige marble from a former Roman milestone . Its length does not quite reach the side buttresses. Its visible side is carved with a vegetable bas-relief and its wide frame is provided with a Latin inscription and a date of manufacture. The top of the lintel is covered with a double-profiled cantilever cornice, which is led up to the buttresses.
The areas between the door pillars, the bas-reliefs and the buttresses are filled with suitably cut flat stone, flush with the surface.
The round arched, slightly pointed tympanum , which is carved with a high relief, rises from this profile . It is encompassed by an equally slightly sharpened, unusually wide archivolt arch, made of long, smooth wedge stones made of multi-colored marble, from pure white, through various shades of gray, to piebald gray-white shades. These are framed on the outside by a double cantilever profile made of multi-colored marble, with the addition of the light beige. On both sides of this edging, another arch in gray stones was started again in the spaces up to the buttresses. But there were two arch stones on the right and one and a half arch stones on the left. Above that, the masonry was continued with medium-sized ashlars in regular layers.
The two-winged wooden portal is decorated with artfully shaped wrought iron fittings.
- Portal sculpture
The two bas-reliefs on the side of the portal opening made of white marble represent the patron saint of the cathedral, on the right Saint Peter , seated, the keys in his right hand and the Gospel pressed to his body with the left, and on the right Saint Paul , kneeling , the waved sword in his right hand, a book with the letters of the apostles resting on his knee with his left hand. The still rigid silhouettes , wrapped in tunics and cloaks "in the" ancient style " , emerge in a faint relief from the monotonous background of the plate. The faces with modeled beards and hair are turned towards the viewer. Both panels date back to the beginning of the 12th century, their rounded shape on the top and the mutilated profile strips indicate that they belonged to a large round-arched tympanum, in the center of which Christ was probably depicted. Perhaps it is the tympanum of the first Romanesque cathedral from the 11th century, no later than the beginning of the 12th century.
The two consoles in the portal opening, which are carved in high relief with the heads of the apostles Peter and Paul, which correspond to the neighboring representations of the bas-reliefs, can be assigned to the same era and the same style.
- The bas-relief on the portal lintel
shows within the text frame a tendril motif in a significantly higher artistic level, which combines its acanthus leaves into six large medallions and decorated with artistically drawn flourishes , a sculptural work of the highest fineness, which is obviously based on ancient models. Thanks to its inscription , the lintel can be dated precisely to 1178, which coincides with the completion of the nave . The inscription in Latin verses and capital letters contains this date and is signed by its author Bernard Tréviers:
+ AD PORTUM VITE: SITIENTES QUIQUE VENITE
HAS INTRANDO FORES: COMPONITE MORES
HINC INTRANS ORA: TUA SEMPER CRIMINA PLORA
QUIQUID ORCCATUR: LACRIMARUM FONTE LAVATUR
On the vertical bar on the left you can read:
BERNARDUS DE III VIIS FECIT HOC + ANNO INC
(armationis) D '(omini) MC LXX. VIII.
Translation:
You who are thirsty come to this haven of life.
Purify your manners as you pass through these doors.
You who enter here, always weep your misdeeds,
Whatever sin you have committed, it is washed away by many tears.
+ Bernard de Tréviers wrote this. in the year of the Lord 1178 ".
The slightly pointed round arched tympanum is the youngest element of the portal. The sculpture, carved in very pure white marble, shows Christ as Majestas Domini in a frontal view , sitting on an ancient fluted throne, his right hand raised in a gesture of blessing and the left hand holding the open book of life on his knee. His massive figure, draped with complexly folded clothing, is enclosed in a multi-arched mandorla . His head is backed by a cross nimbus and his feet rest on a slightly twisted bench.
Christ is flanked on both sides by the four evangelist symbols, which come from the vision of the Apocalypse , the covering of their heads with nimben marks them as saints. All four are winged beings who present long banners in their hands or paws that are said to have been inscribed with Latin texts from the Gospels .
At the top left the person who symbolizes St. Matthew walks in the direction of the enthroned, at the bottom left is the outward-facing lion, who has turned his head backwards over his back towards Christ, as a symbol for St. Mark . Also striving outwards, but with their heads turned towards the center, the eagle for St. John is at the top right and the bull for St. Luke at the bottom right .
A narrow curved rim of undulating clouds lines the dense composition, whose antique style and realism testify to the late influence of the Saint-Gilles studios in an already Gothic spirit.
Interior
Main nave
The main nave from the 2nd half of the 12th century stands on an elongated rectangular floor plan, which is divided into three slightly rectangular bays. The ship is covered by pointed barrel vaults, which, with a vertex height of almost twenty meters above the floor, has a very slim elevation , the longitudinal walls of which are 2.50 meters thick. The height of the vaults is marked with a strong, wide, three-tiered profiled cornice , which is led around the capitals of the wall pillars carved with acianthus leaves at right angles. Above this, the vaults recede unusually far. The same vault shape extends over the transept arms to the east wall of the transept. The yokes of the ship and its extension over the transept are divided by strong triple stepped belt arches made of wedge stones, the two outer steps of which end on the setbacks of the vault. Only the inner step of the arch merges into semicircular columns below the capital, which extend in one piece over the entire height of the wall.
Four rows of circular holes the size of a fist can be seen in the vault of the nave, which supposedly correspond to sound vessels , such as amphorae made of terracotta , which were walled in to improve the acoustics in Roman theaters. However, it is more likely that urns made of porous ceramics are walled in, which are supposed to "ventilate" the vault and thus free any rainwater that has penetrated.
Towards the end of the 12th century, a heavy-weight-looking gallery was drawn into the first two bays, supported by barrel vaults with a semicircular elevation. The barrel of the second vault becomes the groin vault through the insertion of two transverse round arched caps, whose ridges do not meet at a central point because of the rectangular floor plan. The vaults are a good meter above the floor and are marked by strong cantilever consoles, which are led around the yoke-dividing simple belt arches and the base-like widened wall pillars.
Various plates with bas-reliefs and inscriptions are embedded in the south wall of the second yoke. These are artefacts discovered by Frederic Fabrège in the new paving of the cathedral in 1872: below two rows of bas-reliefs and ancient inscriptions, in the middle three registers with Romanesque commemorative plaques and above Gothic sculptural fragments, including the coat of arms of the pontifical seat Maguelone, the keys of Saint Peter, in duplicate.
The ancient marble (Hellenistic relief, Roman grave stelae and curious memorial plaque from early Christian times: "VERA IN PACE") was probably brought to Maguelone as a building material or decorative element in the Middle Ages.
The medieval inscriptions (epitaphs of canons and other clergymen), however, come from the cloister and the cemetery of the bishopric.
On the same wall, in the lower area, a stone bench is lined up across the width of the yoke.
In the opposite wall of the second yoke there is a round arched doorway that is bricked up on the outside. This door led to the ground floor of the former cloister with its convent rooms.
Right in the center of the west wall of the facade, three steps lead up to the rectangular opening of the main portal, which is bordered on the sides by deep reveals. Above this there is a round-arched blind arcade in a wall niche which is limited by the continuations of the side door reveals and which is led upwards through the ceiling of the grandstand. The two-winged wooden portal, which is decorated and fastened on the outside with wrought iron fittings, can be locked from the inside with an enormous, reconstructed wooden bolt.
Above the gallery one encounters the above-described vaults of the first two bays of the ship. On the gable wall of the facade is a large, simple, sharp-edged blind arcade the size of the entire elevation of the ship. The light-soaked canons' choir on the gallery contrasts with the semi-darkness of the ship, the transept and, above all, the space under the gallery.
The wall niche described above arrives in the facade wall above the main portal on the ground floor, which is led through a corresponding slit-like ceiling breakthrough, a kind of internal machine, and further above is covered by a semicircular blind arcade arch made of wedge stones. Its crown is at least about three meters above the floor of the gallery. The arch approaches are marked by fighter profiles. It is actually a defensive tool. In the niche there used to be a metal-studded portcullis, similar to the one in castle gates, which could be lowered to reinforce the wooden main portal on the ground floor.
To the left of the niche, near the side wall, there is a rectangular single-wing door, the opening of which formerly connected the upper floor of the St-Jean tower with the grandstand. The door is covered by a monolithic lintel and a relief arch made of wedge stones.
High above the niche, roughly at the height of the vaults, a medium-sized, round-arched window is cut out, the edges of which are set back on the sides and top, in which an archivolt made of a curved round rod on smooth pillars stands, which is equipped with plant-carved capitals and profiled fighters . Immediately above it there is a much smaller round arched window, in the back of which there is no archivolt with columns. Both windows bathe the ship in golden evening light on late summer afternoons.
In the south wall, three slit-like round arched window openings are cut out, two of them in the first yoke and one in the second. The walls of these loopholes are widened inward at the sides and at the top, which makes them look like slender windows there. The lateral edges of the drapery are broken up into setbacks in which slender columns are set, equipped with capitals carved from plants and profiled warriors and bases.
Under the windows there are curious square openings that extend through the entire thickness of the wall and open into tiny "loopholes" on the outside. The purpose and meaning of the openings, however, remains a mystery: are they perhaps observation slits? Two such wall openings can also be found in the west wall.
There are no window openings in the north walls above the gallery. There is only a rectangular door in the second yoke that once led to the upper floor of the cloister and through which the stairs to the ground floor of the church can still be reached today.
In the middle in front of the gallery parapet there was an altar formerly dedicated to St. Nicholas from the 13th century, the canon community that grew from an initial twelve to over 60 in the 14th century. When restoring this altar, Frederic-Fabrège used the grave slab of Bishop Jean de Montlaur (1158–1190), which was found again in 1912, as a tabletop. In reality, it is the cover of a sarcophagus, on the four sides of which a long, highly interesting inscription in Latin verse is engraved. This is a reminder of the merits of the authoritarian and at the same time tolerant prelate, church builder and school founder. But it also contains allusions to his transgressions, the arguments with the chapter and the circumstances of his death. This was undoubtedly a far cry from Maguelone, where his faithful helper, the sacristan Bernard, put the mortal shell in 1191.
The Latin text in capitals reads:
+ IN HOC VASE JOANNIS (Alpha et Omega) .LUX SEMPER CLARESCAT PERENNUIS. QUISPIRITUS SANCTI DONIS.PAUPERES INTRODUXIT IN SCOLIS
ET CUJUS NOBIS EFUSUS RST SANGUIS.ILLIUS PURGET CRIMINA CARNIS.BERTRANDUS VOCATUR ILLE.QUI SIBI ELEGIT DE MILLE
HIC EUM DEPOSUIT.SICUTI AD ORESENS POTUIT.IN PRIMA HEBDOMADA QUADRAGESIME.ANNO CARNACIONIS DOMINICE
SICUTI SUCEPIUS in SILICE.QUI POSTITUS EST IN CAPITE.IN THE PENULTIMO POSTREMO IN MERCURIO.AB HOC NIGRAVIT SECULO FINITO NONDUM FEBRUARIO
Translation:
“ In this grave (the body rests) of Jean. May Alpha and Omega (Christ), the eternal light, always shine upon him, who imparted the gifts of the Spirit to the poor in schools, and may he whose blood was shed for us wash away his carnal sins. "
“ The one he chose from among the thousands is called Bernard (the sacristan). It was he who buried him as well as possible during the first week of fasting of the year of the Lord's Incarnation (1191). As it is written on the stone at the top of the head, he left this century on a Wednesday, the penultimate February. "
Due to the low altitude and its great depth, the gallery vault is very overwhelming for the visitor entering. The majestic expansion of the building only becomes apparent when you pass through the third bay of the main nave. The eastern front of the gallery is smoothly closed in the area of the parapet and the arches on both sides. The top of the parapet is covered with slightly cantilevered stone slabs. The eastern edge of the arch has a double wedge arch with a slight setback.
In the walls of this yoke, a round-arched arcade opening is recessed on the upper floor, which opens into a niche with the same outline, the depth of which, at a good two meters, reaches almost the entire wall thickness. Their vault approaches are marked with a cantilevered cornice. The horizontal niche floor is about half a meter below the upper edge of the gallery and has no parapet on the ship side. You can see these niches from the gallery. In the sources they are referred to as "tiny high chapels". The north has a rectangular door opening in the north wall, through which it could be reached from the upper floor of the former cloister. In its east wall, a second opening opens directly next to the north wall, round-arched and significantly higher than the access door. It is probably a connecting passage to the upper floor of the tower above the northern arm of the transept. Such a round-arched passage opens in the east wall of the southern high chapel, albeit at a lower height. A source mentions an entrance for this from the Saint-Michel chapel on the upper floor of the old Saint-Augustin tower. However, this cannot be seen from the stands. There is also no information about vertical access to the upper floor of the two southern towers and thus also to this chapel. In the floor plan you can see an extensive mass of masonry between these towers, in which one can imagine such a staircase, which then also has a connection to the aforementioned passage.
With the high chapels, the canons had several oratorios at the level of the upper cloister and the gallery, which were at least partially accessible without having to climb stairs .
On the ground floor of the third bay, a large three-tier arcade opens up in the south wall with sharp-edged setbacks on both sides of the wall. The outer arcade step is as wide as the opening of the high chapel above it. Immediately behind it, another arcade opens up, in the dimension of the inner arcade step of the south wall, into the Saint-Augustin chapel, which is square in plan and above which the tower of the same name once rose. It is the only evidence of the Romanesque cathedral built by Bishop Armaud in the 11th century. The low, dark and damp chapel, built in a small-format association of “cold stone”, which probably formed the southern cross arm of Arnaud's predecessor cathedral, is covered by a barrel vault oriented transversely to the nave, which on the formerly free sides on large semicircular relief arches rests. The vaults and arches are marked with angular, partly profiled cantilever cornices. On the south side, the wall surface recedes somewhat above the height of the cornice. In the eastern arched niche there is an altar made of a brick plinth with a profiled base and a monolithic stone slab, the sides of which are bevelled inwards, on a single-step plinth. In the southern arched niche, a sturdy block of marble with the remains of a high relief of three standing people stands on a slightly higher plinth that is flush with the wall. In the western arched niche, directly on the floor, lies a monolith with a square cross-section and rounded edges that extends over the entire niche. On an abutment of the higher arcade arches, the funerary inscription of Aribert (possibly also Albert), a bishop of Avignon who died in Maguelone at the beginning of the 12th century, can be read in beautiful Romanesque script.
On the upper floor was the now dilapidated Saint-Michel Chapel, which houses a white marble altar with the coat of arms of Bishop Jean de Bonald (1471 or 1472–1487), whose grave can be seen in the transept. A plate attached above bears the reconstituted epitaph of the great Bishop Arnaud I (1030-1060), the Latin text of which was translated as follows:
“Here rests Arnaud, father and builder of this church in the thirty years of his episcopate. He died in Villeneuve on his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He was brought here and first laid out at the bottom of the stairs in front of the door to the cloister. Bishop Godefroy *, who had an apparition, had him buried here in a more dignified place ”. * = (also Geoffroi, 1080–1104)
In the north wall of the third yoke, a rectangular door opening is cut out on the far right, which once led to the ground floor of the cloister and via which one can still reach the single, straight staircase that climbs sideways within the north wall. The monumental staircase, which was wide for the time, has a comfortable, low incline with quite wide steps, the wear and tear of which is evidence of heavy use. The top of the long stairwell is covered by long stone slabs running across the stairs, which, like the actual flight of stairs, are stepped one below the other and rest on rounded console stones on each side, thus opening up visually effective perspectives when climbing up and down. Above, two uniform rectangular doors lead to the gallery and opposite to the upper floor of the now defunct cloister.
Transept and graves
The transept, begun at the beginning of the 12th century by Bishop Galtier and completed by his successor Godefroy, together with the three apses, shows the earlier design compared to the main nave due to small differences, such as the medium-sized wall connection, the hardly indicated pointed arches, the scarcely lower vault height and the rudimentary capital decorations.
It has a spacious yoke with a rectangular floor plan with a slightly pointed barrel vault with an outline almost identical to the main nave. In its side walls, almost round-arched arcades open below the vaulting into the slightly rectangular chapels of the transept arms: in the south the Chapelle Saint-Marie, also known as the South Cross, and in the north the Chapelle du Saint-Sépulcre (Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher), too Called Nordkreuz. The arcades are covered by double wedge stone arches, stepped back on both sides, which stand on half-columns equipped with vegetable-carved capitals, profiled fighter plates and bases on angular plinths.
The north cross is covered by a peculiar, solid walled vault and is based on primeval cross ribs with thick arches with a rectangular cross section that cross each other without a keystone , which stand on recessed corner pillars or with spiers. This construction comes from the early phase of the southern Romanesque, which was intended to improve the construction of the groin vaults , and was reserved for crypts in Lombard architecture . Here it finds an early and masterful application on larger areas. The Saint-Pancrace chapel on the upper floor, which cannot be seen from the nave, has the same type of vault.
In the east wall, which is flat on the outside, an apse with a semicircular floor plan is embedded. The elevation of their entrance arcade takes over the slightly pointed arch of the chapel vault. The apse vault is a semi-dome, the approach of which is marked by a simple cornice. In the apse axis, just below the vault, there is a small round arched window, the walls of which are widened inwards.
In the background of the north transept arm rises a large Gothic mausoleum with a canopy of the Cardinal of Canillac, a former provost of Maguelone, who died in Avignon in 1373. He was related to Pope Clement VI. , was promoted to Archbishop of Toulouse and was benefactor of the diocese, in which he founded the collegiate church of Sainte-Trinité, in Maguelone. His heavily damaged tomb made of chalk lime now contains a sarcophagus made of gray marble hewn from the Visigothic era (6th - 7th centuries). It was found in the 20th century and arbitrarily given the name “Tomb of the beautiful Maguelonne”, the legendary heroine of a courtly novel: It is decorated with entwined foliage, in which acanthus and vine leaves mix in an antique way.
The architectural elements of the south cross correspond to the north cross built at the same time (around 1130). It was connected to the cemetery through a high "Door of the Dead", which was cut out in its southwest corner. Around the badly damaged mausoleum of Bishop Pierre Adhémar (1405 or 1408–1415), some stone sarcophagi from the late Middle Ages and tombstones of canons have been collected. At the foot of the Romanesque altar, in black marble, with which the side apse is also adorned, rests the savior of the cathedral, Frédéric Fabrège (died 1915). On the upper floor of the Sainte-Marie tower was a chapel that has now been destroyed.
- Lying figures
Among the numerous now largely anonymous tombs on the floor of the transept, four bishop reliefs made of white marble with a representation of the deceased on a display bed are particularly striking . There are consecutively from north to south:
- Antoine de Subjet, Bishop of Montpellier (1573–1596), depicted in bas-relief, with a cappa , crossed hands and a long beard.
- Izarn Barrière (1488–1498), best known as the reorganizer of the university. Its high relief stands out from a niche in Renaissance architecture.
- Jean de Bonald (1472–1487), scholar and humanist, bequeathed his library to the chapter. Elegant * flat grave in Gothic style, with very pure lines, simply engraved in the white marble.
- Guitard de Ratte (1596–1602), the last bishop to be buried in the cathedral. His clumsy, emphatically realistic portrait (clothes, staff, pillows) indicates the end of an era.
Grave slab
Grave slab
Gravestone, Antoine de Subjet
Grave slab
Choir
The choir consists of a very narrow choir bay on an elongated rectangular floor plan, which is followed by the semicircular floor plan of the choir apse, in contrast to the outer polygonal outline.
The elevation of the choir bay is somewhat narrower and lower than that of the transept bay, which is almost the same as that of the main nave. The width of the laterally parallel wall protrusion steadily increases slightly above the base of the arch towards the apex. The elevation of the choir apse is again somewhat narrower and lower than that of the choir bay. The width of the surface offset is similar to the previous one. Only the inner curve of the curve describes a semicircle without a point. The vault of the apse is a semi-dome.
The choir, built at the beginning of the 12th century together with the transept, still bears traces of the decorative elements of earlier Romanesque architecture. Above the stone bench of the presbyters, heir to the early Christian tradition, which completely surrounds the choir apse, a plinth rises up to about halfway up the apse wall, where it is closed horizontally by a simple cantilevered cornice. In the axis of the apse, just above the bench, the traces of the former bishop's throne can be seen.
The vault approach of the dome is marked by a toothed frieze, which closes an arcature standing on the base on the top. Thirteen small round arches stand on twelve slender and unusually high columns, which are equipped with carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases.
Three medium-sized, round-arched windows that stand on the base and whose width corresponds to an arcade fit into this arcade. The windows are separated by three arcades each. The walls of the windows are widened inwards at the sides and at the top and their edges are broken up by setbacks, in which archivolts are set, with arches made of round bars on pillars that are somewhat thicker and equipped like the arcature. Two pillars of the arcature end directly above the archivolt arches of the windows.
This slightly simple decoration is reminiscent of the "Lombard bands" that often divide the outer sides of apses in early Romanesque architecture in southern Europe.
The main altar re-erected by Frédéric Fabrège in the Chorjoch has a simple stone slab with a decorative strip and is undoubtedly no older than 400 years. It stands in place of the altar, which was erected by Pope Alexander III in 1163. has been consecrated. Due to a privilege of the Romanesque basilicas, it used to be adorned with the often cited flabella (singular flabellum), a kind of fan made of peacock feathers, as a symbol of membership of the Holy See and apostolic vigilance.
Choir apse, 19th century graphic
Choir from the gallery
Main altar in the choir bay
Ancient Egyptian flabella (top center) and lotus motifs, 1868
See also
literature
- Dictionnaire des églises de France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Suisse (Tome II-C) . Robert Laffont, Paris, pp. 173-174.
- Jacques Lugand: Languedoc roman . Zodiaque, La Pierre-qui-Vire 1985, ISBN 2-7369-0017-0 , pp. 227-244.
- Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos: Le guide du Patrimoine: Languedoc, Roussillon . Ministère de la Culture, Hachette, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-01-242333-7 , pp. 280-284.
- Jean Vallery-Radot: L'ancienne cathédrale de Maguelone . Presented at Congrès archéologique de France - 108e session, 1951, Montpellier.
- Robert Saint-Jean: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre . 2007, pp. 1-32
- Robert Saint Jean: L'ancienne cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Maguelone . In: Languedoc Roman . Zodiaque, La Pierre-qui-Vire 1975 (reissued 1985), pp. 226-244
- J. Vallery-Radot: L'ancienne cathédrale de Maguelone . In: Congres Archéologique de France, Montpellier, 1950. pp. 60-89.
- G. Cholvy, M. Chalon, H. Vidal: Le diocèse de Montpellier . (= coll. Histoire des Diocèses de France, No 4), Paris 1976
- Rolf Legle: Languedoc, Roussillon, From the Rhone to the Pyrenees . DuMont Art Guide, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7701-1151-6
Web links
- F Maguelone . Art roman (French)
- Images of the cathedral
- Page Municipality of Palavas (French)
- Site of the commune of Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone (French)
- Les Compagnons de Maguelone - informative with pictures and plans (French)
- Old postcards with pictures of the cathedral
Individual evidence
- ^ Page of the Ministère de la culture (France) with dates and pictures
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: p. 5.
- ↑ David M. Cheney: Archdiocese of Montpellier (-Lodève-Béziers-Agde-Saint-Pons-de-Thomières). In: The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church. April 1, 2011, accessed on April 20, 2011 (English): "Diocese of Maguelonne… Erected: 3rd Century"
- ↑ J.-M. Besse: "ABBAYES ET PRIEURÉS DE L'ANCIENNE FRANCE", Archives de la France monastique (1905), p. 189
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: p. 6.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: pp. 6–7.
- ↑ Julia Droste-Hennings, Thorsten Droste: France, the southwest - the landscapes between the massif central, the Atlantic and the Pyrenees. 1st edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7701-6618-3 , pp. 24-25.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: p. 25.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: p. 8.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: pp. 8–9.
- ↑ Les Compagnons de Maguelone ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. French page with pictures, see under "Patrimoine" and there under "Les recherches archéologique"
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: pp. 11–12.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: p. 13.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: pp. 13–17.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, pp. 1–32, here: p. 20.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, p. 199.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, p. 279.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, p. 269.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, p. 209.
- ^ A b Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, p. 219.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, p. 239.
- ^ Saint-Jean Robert: Maguelone - Former cathedral of Saint-Pierre. 2007, p. 259.
Coordinates: 43 ° 30 ′ 45 ″ N , 3 ° 53 ′ 1 ″ E