St-Restitut (Saint-Restitut)
The Catholic Church Saint-Restitut in Saint-Restitut , a French commune in the department of Drôme in the region Auvergne Rhône-Alpes , is an example of Romanesque architecture in Provence . The church was built towards the end of the 12th century, the tower probably in the 11th century.
history
The church of Saint-Restitut commemorates the blind Sidonius , whom Jesus is said to have restored to sight and who, after his healing, took on the name Restitutus, the restored. According to legend , he is said to have come to southern France with St. Mary . In Augusta Tricastinorum, later Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux , he founded the Church of Notre-Dame and became the first bishop of Tricastin . After his death near Milan , his remains are said to have been transferred to the village of Saint-Restitut, which was later named after him, where he was buried in the tower of the church, which is therefore called the Tour Funéraire ( funerary tower).
In the Middle Ages , Saint-Restitut became a place of pilgrimage , where especially the blind hoped for healing. The church was first mentioned in writing in 1249, when the saint's relics were reburied in a marble shrine and moved from the tower to the church. In 1516 a small Gothic ciborium was built for the relics , which is now on the ground floor of the tower. The remains of the holy restitute were burned during the Wars of Religion .
The buildings were sold during the French Revolution and only bought back by the French state in the mid-19th century. In 1840 the church was as a protected monument in the list of Monuments historiques added.
architecture
Exterior construction
The oldest part of the complex is the square, windowless tower, Tour Funéraire , which adjoins the church to the west. It is dated to the 11th century.
The lower part of the tower consists of roughly hewn, smaller stones. A frieze runs on all four sides , under which relief panels with figurative representations are arranged. A panel breaking through the frieze is dedicated to Christ enthroned, other panels depict donkeys, birds, mythical creatures, the symbols of the evangelists , the Agnus Dei and people. The reliefs are cut with sharp edges and have a shallow depth, as is the case with early Romanesque sculpture.
The upper part of the tower, with its medium-sized, regularly hewn cuboids, which are carefully joined together, refers to the Romanesque architecture of the 12th century. Numerous stonemason 's marks can be seen here.
Like the upper part of the tower, the church is also built from regular blocks, which suggests that it was built at the same time. The nave opens into a pentagonal apse , the corners of which are reinforced by pilasters with carved capitals . A cornice with a frieze made of palm leaves integrated in semicircles runs under the roof approach. The corbels below are carved with animal heads and plant motifs. Two arched windows open on the east and south sides.
The south portal is covered by a round arch and framed by two mighty buttresses . Two with foliated capitals provided fluted half- columns support a triangular pediment. On the right-hand capital, two hands and a head with a mustache are depicted in the middle of the acanthus leaves .
inner space
The single-nave interior extends over three unequal bays . It is spanned by a pointed barrel reinforced with belt arches that rest on massive pillars. The walls of the nave are divided by arched arcades . In the east a triumphal arch opens to the choir. The wall of the pentagonal apse, which is pentagonal on the outside and semicircular on the inside, is adorned with blind arcades on narrow pillars, the capitals of which are provided with mantelpieces . The tower forms the western end of the nave, the lower storey of which was opened to the interior when the church was added. The frieze and the relief panels, which also run along the three outer walls of the tower, have been preserved above the gallery .
literature
- Guy Barruol, Jean-Maurice Rouquette: Routes through the Romanesque Provence . Echter Verlag , Würzburg 1993, ISBN 3-429-01506-5 , pp. 93-94.
- Jean-Maurice Rouquette: Provence novels I . Zodiaque, 2nd edition, La Pierre-qui-Vire 1980, pp. 123-136. (without ISBN)
- 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. 92-93 .
Web links
- Lieux Sacrés / Saint-Restitut (French text)
- Église Saint-Restitut in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
Coordinates: 44 ° 19 ′ 54.6 ″ N , 4 ° 47 ′ 20.9 ″ E