Ste-Radegonde (Talmont)
The Romanesque parish church of Ste-Radegonde is located on a cliff of the Gironde estuary on the edge of the French commune of Talmont-sur-Gironde in the Charente-Maritime department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region , about 30 kilometers southwest of Saintes and 12 kilometers southeast of Royan . It is known for its spectacular location and its architecture in the regional style of the Saintonge - Romanesque .
history
Traces of Roman settlement have been found one to two kilometers inland. Presumably it is a city with warehouses, thermal baths and an amphitheater .
Shortly after the Carolingian period (8th to 9th centuries), on the rocky cliff that extends furthest into the sea, there was a Ste-Radegonde chapel, the predecessor of today's church. It lasted until the 15th century.
The chapel was dedicated to Saint Radegundis (Fr. Radegonde ), a Franconian queen of royal Thuringian origin, born around 520, with a Christian lifestyle that was excellently documented for the time. Since 558 she lived in the service of the monastery of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers , which she founded, where she died on August 13, 587 after a charitable life and work.
From the 10th century to the 13th century, the Seigneurs de Talmont maintained a fortified military post in the area of today's settlement, the castrum Talamo , which was of considerable strategic military importance. From the shores of the small peninsula, the outer mouth of the Gironde could be seen from a wide area. The sea level was then significantly higher than it is today.
In 1094 the chapel was sold to the Benedictines of the Abbey of Saint-Jean-d'Angély . Not long afterwards and in the early 12th century (according to other sources from 1140 to 1170), the abbey of Saint-Jean-d'Angély gave rise to the largely preserved church in the high Romanesque style of Saintonge . It was built in two construction phases: the first section consists of the transept , the choir and the transept chapels, the second consists of the nave, which is now only in ruins, and the presumably lavishly decorated west facade. According to the historian Ch. Dangibaud, Ste-Radegonde was built by the same builders who built the churches of Rétaud , Rioux , Pont-l'Abbé and Arces. There are corresponding similarities in the designs.
At the same time as the church was built, the buildings of the associated Talmont priory were built , which was managed as a function of the Saint-Eutrope Abbey in Saintes .
The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela experienced a great boom in the 12th century. One of the four main routes, the Via Turonensis , came via Saint-Jean-d'Angély and Saintes and extended this direction directly to Talmont, which became an important stage for many pilgrims to Santiago. From here they had the choice of different routes, either crossing the Gironde's wide estuary, or traveling along the banks of the Gironde to Blaye , and crossing the Garonne River there, and traveling further south via Bordeaux , or one used the more convenient sea route to the Bay of Biscay (the last option is disputed, probably a secondary route). There was a small port here for embarkation.
The reign of Talmont was bought by Edward I of England in 1284 , who fortified it and made it an enclosed city ( Ville close ), comparable to the bastides in southwest France. In the 13th century, the church was also fortified for defense purposes.
During the Hundred Years' War (1339-1453) Talmont was repeatedly besieged and occupied alternately by French and English. During the wars of religion (1562–1598), the Talmontais always remained Catholics. The priory buildings appear to have been completely destroyed by the devastation of the Hundred Years' War and / or the Wars of Religion.
In the 14th century, a devastating flood of the Gironde destroyed large parts of the nave - two or three bays including the Romanesque facade were probably torn down. Then today's west facade was raised in front of the remaining section of the nave, flanked by two buttresses and provided with a Gothic portal.
A sundial is engraved in the south buttress of the apse . It is dated to the year 1586.
During the Fronde des Princes in 1652, Spanish troops, in alliance with the Frondeurs, occupied the city, demolished its walls and evacuated it.
In the late 19th century was a small below the level of the forecourt crypt as ossuary (charnel house) created. As early as 1890, Sainte-Radegonde was placed under monument protection and classified as a monument historique . This was followed by numerous restorations and reconstructions, the most important in 1935 (transept and dome of the crossing tower).
During the First World War , the Americans began building a large port in 1918 in order to be able to land there. With the ceasefire on November 11th, further expansion was stopped.
In 1970 and afterwards there were further restorations, including consolidating the cliff and walling it up. The restoration work was completed in 2004.
Building
Outward appearance
The two construction phases of the current building were built towards the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th century. In the first construction phase the completely preserved transept, the choir and its chapels were built, in the second the nave with probably two or three bays , of which only the last one still exists, and perhaps a decorative facade in the west. Due to the shortened nave, the church now resembles a central building . The masonry consists of beige-colored to yellowish natural stones, which today have predominantly a light to dark gray patina . The weathering under the direct influence of the sea surf and the salty air could have extremely damaging influences on this structure. The large blocks have been precisely trimmed and smoothed by stonemasons and walled up in a bond. All roof areas are covered with reddish hollow tiles in Roman shape.
ship
The rest of the ship extends over the last yoke, it is hardly wider than the crossing tower . The previously existing extension by one or two yokes would not be possible today because there would not be enough space on the rock for it - just before the current facade it goes straight down, as the rock was washed away by the force of the sea over time has been. It was replaced by a stone wall with a parapet, which also extends further around the south side.
The eaves height of the nave is slightly larger than that of the transept. The gently sloping gable roof is slightly overlooked by the facade wall erected after the great accident. On the side walls there is still one of the original buttresses, which are slightly bulky and are arranged opposite the last remaining inner chord arch . Approximately in the middle of the yoke, a slot-like window with a small round arch is cut out on both sides, similar to a loopholes . The eaves design with a covered rain gutter and gargoyles corresponds to that on the transept arms (see section transept).
West facade
The facade is dominated by the oversized and huge looking buttresses arranged diagonally at their wall corners . With the ridges of their steep gable roofs, they reach just below the eaves . The only decoration on the facade is the main portal in Gothic style; it is covered with a pointed arch . The robes and archivolt arches are tiered four times. The sides are flanked by slim, rectangular cross-section pillars on which the outer arch rests. The templates extend upwards, with a tapered cross-section rotated by 45 degrees, to end with ornamented pinnacles at the level of the apex of the arch. The outer halves of the arch have been decorated with crabs and are bent up in the middle before they meet. The resulting tip bears a kind of finial . A pointed arched window is cut out above the portal without any decorative features.
Crossing tower
As an extension of the ship, the square, squat looking crossing tower is attached. The two arms of the transept and the choir are built on the other three sides, equally wide and high, and covered with gently sloping pitched roofs. The crossing tower has an unusually low height above the components surrounding it; it has no bells. Apart from smaller ventilation holes, its smooth outer wall surfaces have no openings or other formative structures. However, there is a circumferential setback of the walls about a meter below the eaves, with two gargoyles protruding on each side . What task should these fulfill with a tower that is closed and roofed on all sides and where the rainwater drains over the eaves? There is also no "covered gutter" like on the transept (see there). However, the following would be conceivable: In times of necessary defense, the roof structure of the tower was removed and a walk-on roof area was created at the height of the back offset, which was drained to the outside via the gargoyles still present today. The crossing tower was accordingly a watchtower on which the guards or defenders could protect themselves behind the parapet walls. Presumably this is one of the fortifications of the church in the 13th century listed in the section "History". Another source speaks of an earlier bell tower above the crossing, but also of its military importance as a fortified watchtower. It is also stated there that the tower received its current shape at the beginning of the 20th century. Today the tower is covered with a gently sloping pyramid roof. The eaves consist of a stone cantilever cornice with a right-angled cross-section , above which the rafter heads are covered with a sloping, red-colored board, which is slightly surmounted by the first row of roof tiles.
Transept
The southern arm of the transept facing the Gironde bears no decorative elements or structures , apart from the pilaster-like pillars on the building corners, a simple frieze on the front wall at the height of the eaves, and a small window just below it. It looms menacingly near the cliff that descends perpendicular to the surface of the water. With the front wall or “facade” of the northern arm of the transept, things look very different. Since the disappearance of the old west facade, it has been the actual display wall and the main entrance to the church. It is even likely that it always has been, as visitors or pilgrims always came from the village side to the church, and that was and still is the north side (see section 'The north facade').
The longitudinal walls of the transept have an interesting architectural detail. Four (on the north arm) or three (on the south arm) stone gargoyles jut out about 20 cm below the eaves tiles. On closer inspection, behind the first or second row of roof tiles, one discovers a stone rain gutter that is covered by them. The rainwater that runs from the roof over the tiles cannot get to the bottom row of the tiles, because shortly before it drips into the aforementioned gutter and then passes over it into the gargoyles, from where it can flow away in a concentrated manner. On the northern arm of the transept, the gargoyles are supported by an ornamented cornice band on carved corbels . The ship has the same eaves detail.
Choir head
The east side of the church is dominated by the apses of the choir and the transept chapels flanking it. They mainly differ in their different sizes. The floor plan of the choir initially has the dimensions of one of the transept arms, but is extended by the semicircular apse. The flat sloping gable roof of the choir closes with the same slope in the form of a half cone. The width of the chapel apses is slightly more than half the width of the choir apse. The shapes of the floor plan and cross-section correspond to those of the choir, but are significantly smaller. The height of their roof ridges ends a good meter below the eaves height of the transept.
Rough breakdown
The horizontal division of the choir and its apse into three 'floors', the heights of which decrease towards the top, is made with the help of two cantilevered cornices. The lower and wider faces are adorned with lush vegetal decor, and the upper and narrower ones are decorated with geometric decorations. The ribbons run across the walls and around any continuous columns. The upper end is formed by the strongly dimensioned eaves cornice, almost square in cross-section, in sections with a cove on the visible edge. Its vertical face is ornamented like a chessboard . The cornice is supported by six columns with corbels in between. The lower end of the walls, as well as that of the other parts of the building, forms a protruding base that extends slightly above knee height and is profiled several times on the top.
The choir apse is structured vertically by six strong round supports, which protrude from the walls significantly more than half of their cross-section. They reach under the eaves cornice, but their diameter on the top 'floor' is only half as large as at the base. These columns do not exist in the area of the chapel extensions. The middle field is slightly wider than the others.
The chapels have no horizontal subdivisions into 'storeys'. The walls of the chapel are only divided vertically with semicircular supports, the southern one with three and the northern one with two, which are much slimmer than the choir. Similar to the choir pillars, the upper section, here almost a meter long, is thinner than the lower. In the northern chapel, slightly thicker columns are each accompanied by two thinner ones. The angular cantilever cornice under the eaves is decorated with plants on the vertical visible surfaces and is supported by lavishly carved corbels.
Fine structures
The six high columns are enclosed by the floor-dividing bands. On the first floor there is another such decorative ribbon halfway up it. The thinner column extension on the second floor has a base that connects from the larger diameter of the lower column section to the much smaller diameter of the upper section - it resembles an upside-down capital with geometric plastic. The columns end with capitals decorated with vegetables.
The five areas between the pillars are structured the same way, except for the window openings, which only exist in three fields. A blind arcade stretches across the first two floors of slender half-columns, which are placed next to the thick columns dividing the facade, and of a semicircular arch. The columns are divided into a thicker lower section and a thinner upper section, on which capitals adorned with vegetal flowers lead to the arch. The arch has a rectangular cross-section with a geometric structure on the front. It is covered by a narrow, cantilevered and geometrically designed band. Since the middle field is a little wider than the others, its arch extends a little higher up, almost to the dividing band. In the middle field, and in the two outer choir apse, on the first floor there is a slender window with semicircular arches that begin above the band dividing the floors. Its design consists of an archivolt arch made of smooth wedge stones, which rests on two slender circular columns with simply shaped capitals and bases.
On the third floor, the fields are each equipped with three, in the middle with four blind arcade niches. The arcade arches are made of wedge stones with geometric ornaments that appear almost modern. They rest on four, in one case on five slender round columns, the profiled bases of which stand on the band dividing the floors. The capitals of the arcades are lavishly carved from plants and have thick, profiled transom plates. On the side walls of the choir, above the roofs of the chapels, there is an arcade frieze of five arches with six columns, in the design as described above.
The corrugated stone models of the choir and chapel apses are almost all modern replicas of the weathered stones. The depictions come predominantly from the fantasy and mythical world of the Middle Ages , such as portraits of monsters, devils, people and animals, full-body depictions of acrobats and couples, and much more.
The windows of the chapels are slit-like, barely a hand's width and equipped with a small round arch. The only window in the middle of the apse of the south chapel is completely unadorned. Its wall facing the Gironde is completely closed. The two windows of the north chapel are provided with an archivolt arch and two round columns, similar to those of the choir apse. They are covered with a little distance by semicircular arches made of a narrow, geometrically decorated band.
North facade
The front wall of the north arm of the transept bears the actual facade of Sainte-Radegonde, designed in the tradition of the Romanesque architecture of the Saintonge. It points towards the cemetery and the village. From there the pilgrims came , they entered the church through the north portal. In contrast to the rather cheerful, almost parodic sculptures of the Romanesque in southern Poitou, dark-looking sculptures of mythical animals and demons predominate here.
Rough breakdown
The raised rectangle of the facade is laterally bounded in full height by a pilaster strip or pillar template, which is barely a hand's breadth indented from the corner of the building. It goes up without interruption to under a cantilevered cornice that separates the facade from the gable and is supported by corbels.
The façade field below, between the plinths and the pilaster strips, is horizontally divided into two storeys of almost the same height, which are separated by a band decorated with plants, flush with the masonry below.
The multi-profiled base under the ground floor is slightly higher than in the other parts of the building. At the level of the church floor there is a stepped base and in the opening area of the portal there is the third step of the entrance staircase.
The ground floor is dominated by the archivolt portal group. It consists of the main portal and the two flanking, about half as wide false portals. The wall surface of the upper floor recedes by one column behind that of the first floor. Above it is a group of seven blind arcades, the apex of which is about two thirds of the height of the upper floor. The wall surface above is horizontal, roughly divided in half with a simple band made of two narrow bar profiles .
A smooth gable field rises above the cornice delimiting the upper floor, the verges of which end precisely at the level and in the course of the brick roofing. Part of the cornice is the wedge-shaped border of a circular ox-eye .
Fine structures
The main portal is a three-tier archivolt portal with front sides of the archivolt arches of different widths. Large parts of it are heavily weathered, other areas are modern replacements, recognizable by the light-colored stone that has not yet been patinated.
There are older photographs and postcards on which the parts, which are now three-dimensional, have smooth, unstructured surfaces. The replicas appear very authentic, as the scenes depicted are symmetrical and almost identical on each side of the portal. The figures on the two inner archivolt arches are arranged tangentially, while those on the outer arch are arranged radially, except for the two large animals at the ends of the arches.
The inner archivolts arch (No. 1) shows a circular ring around the Lamb of God at its apex . Two angelic figures strive towards him on each side , recognizable by their wings. The upper one stands on a plate that is lifted up by the lower angel. The angel, closer to the Lamb of God, waves a pendulum object with his right hand. It could represent a censer . The angels on the right are badly weathered. Your attitude, which corresponds exactly to the other side, is still understandable. The inner arch is accompanied on the same step by a much narrower band that presents plant ornaments.
The middle archivolt arch (No. 2) shows a heavily weathered and therefore hardly recognizable motif at its apex. With a little imagination, one could see a 'face' of a raptor monster in a frontal view , with eyes wide open. On the following sheets three 'acrobats' are shown on each side. The lower knees on the floor and hold their upwardly angled lower legs with their hands, anatomically not quite correct. Another acrobat stands on her shoulders. He holds up his hands with bent arms and grasps the outstretched arms of the third acrobat, who reaches with his outstretched legs against the monster's head. Representations of acrobats can be found again and again on the portals of medieval pilgrimage churches. The travelers, suspicious of the clergy because of their dubious customs, point to demonic powers in the context of building sculpture, in particular to the vice of lust ( luxuria ) and unbridled sensuality.
This archivolt arch is also separated from the next by a narrow band flush with the surface with plant structures in which one could even identify vine leaves.
The outer archivolt arch (No. 3) is one and a half times wider than the other two. At the top of the arch, a person is crouching in a frontal view on his bent lower legs. She obviously receives the groups of people striving up on both sides. There are five people pulling a thick rope. Their body inclination and the rest of the gestures show that they are making a lot of effort. A large animal is tied to the end of the rope, presumably a lion, which hooks itself into the ground with huge claws and is thus reluctant to move forward. Arch no. 3 is enclosed again by a narrower band, elaborately carved with plant ornaments.
The three archivolts arches with their two companions stand on five round pillars, which are followed by a sixth for the flanking false portal. The group of pillars is crowned by six capitals, all sculptured in different figurative ways, with wide fighter plates that are designed with plants. The figures are predominantly of animal form, four-legged monsters, alternating with birds or human figures. Here, too, the weathering has left considerable mutilations.
The single-level archivolt mock portals flanking the main portal have different designs. The archivolts arch of the left portal shows two lizard- like dragons standing opposite each other and threatening each other , with tails twisted several times, jaws wide open and teeth bared. Since the Church Fathers, the dragon has embodied the principle of evil in medieval symbolism. Like many others, the dragon is ambivalent as a symbol. In southern France the dragon symbolism seems to mix with Nordic influences and take on an overall negative meaning: It is possible that images of the monstrous and poisonous Midgard snake that entwine the world are still echoing here , i.e. H. the dragon embodies evil, the devil, which man has to defeat in order to be accepted into paradise after the last judgment .
The archivolts arch stands on a round column with a capital and a fighter, like the main portal. At the level of the capitals there is a wide band on the left, presumably a dragon opening its mouth. On the right side, there is a possibly female person in a lying position, with the head directly opposite the dragon's mouth. Maybe it's about the dragon and the princess ( St. George's legend ). Above this, the fighter ornamentation continues in an equally wide band. In the arched field it is difficult to see the remains of a seated person without a head, but in its place on the background an isosceles cross, a remnant of a cross nimbus , which in Romanesque iconography was always reserved for the three divine persons .
On the archivolt arch of the right mock portal, the structure in its apex is as good as impossible to identify. On both sides of it a plant tendril with leaves and flowers or fruits grows down to the end of the arch. The structure on the belt between the fighters is also badly weathered. But it could be a female person, with the legs at the right end of the ribbon and the head at the left end. The male person sitting in the bow field is much better preserved or reproduced than in the left one. Here the head has a cross nimbus. The only remaining left hand shows the viewer the gesture of blessing. It is clearly about Jesus Christ .
Interior
The height of the vaults , which you cannot see from the outside of the church, is initially surprising. The crossing is vaulted by a hemispherical dome on four pendentives (hanging gussets). Pointed round arches, stepped in cross-section, guide the loads of the dome and the crossing tower into the bundles of crossing piers, which are made up of a thick semicircular column on each side and flanking slimmer accompanying columns. The arched passages from the transept arms to the chapels are similar, but only smaller.
The bundles of crossing piers are crowned by richly figured capital groups. The scene from the legend of St. George, who snatches the princess from the mouth of the terrible monster, is significant. Elsewhere there are grotesque masks accompanied by clouds, as well as fantastic animal figures devouring one another.
The almost square arms of the transept and the choir are the same width, the remaining last yoke of the nave is slightly wider. The aforementioned parts of the room are vaulted with a pointed barrel. This also applies to the much smaller chapels. The vaults of the choir and chapels are completed in the form of semi-dome domes . The tapering of the vaults and arches is an invention of Burgundian architecture ( Cluny ), which indicates the dependence of the Talmont priory church on the Saint-Eutrope Abbey in Saintes .
The vault of the choir is separated from the apse by a girdle arch, which rests on semicircular columns with slender accompanying columns. These stand about 2.50 m above the ground with their profiled bases on angular corbels that are sloping downwards on the room side. Around the rounded apse there is a blind arcade frieze of five arches, the six semicircular columns of which also stand on corbels, in the same shape and height as the two above. They are crowned by capitals with a vegetal design. The arcade arches are geometrically structured. The middle arch is a little wider and therefore higher than the others. In the middle and the two outer arcade niches there are slender arched windows, flanked with arched pillars that stand in recessed edges. The window reveals are widened inward, the lower reveal is steeply sloping. In the choir and its apse, the vaults are separated from the wall surfaces by a geometrically decorated cornice. This band is profiled in the chapels. A grooved band runs around the entire choir room and over the corbels at the height of the upper edge of the corbel. The windows of the chapels have no decorative elements.
The walls of the church also consist of large-format blocks on the inside in a natural light beige color. The vaults are partly plastered white, but partly made of stone-transparent natural stone in flat formats.
After its restoration, the frigate of Talmont Church hangs in the north chapel , a well-known model of a ship, near which votive plaques were placed in the 19th century in memory of sailors who had died and were rescued.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Église Sainte-Radegonde, Talmont in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
- ↑ Gerd Heinz-Mohr: Lexicon of symbols. Diederichs-Verlag, Munich 1996, p. 29, ISBN 3-424-01420-6 .
- ^ Ingeborg Tetzlaff : Romanesque capitals in France. Lion and snake, siren and angel . Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7701-8892-6 .
literature
- Thorsten Droste : Poitou. Western France between Poitiers and Angoulème - the Atlantic coast from the Loire to the Gironde. DuMont, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7701-4456-2 .
- Julia Droste-Hennings : France, The Southwest. The landscape between the Massif Central, the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees. DuMont, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7701-6618-3 .
Web links
- Talmont, Sainte-Radegonde - photos + brief information ( memento of December 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (French)
- Talmont, city and church - Photos and brief information (Engl.)
- Talmont, Sainte-Radegonde - photos + brief information (in French)
- Talmont, Sainte Radegonde - photos + brief information (in French)
Coordinates: 45 ° 32 ′ 5.6 " N , 0 ° 54 ′ 32.3" W.