Fenioux's Lantern

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Death lantern and adjacent vault
Death lantern, upper part

The Fenioux's Lantern ( French Lanterne des morts de Fenioux ) is a funeral lantern that is one of the most extraordinary medieval buildings in southwestern France. It was already classified as a Monument historique in 1862 .

location

The funeral lantern stands in the small village of Fenioux about 150 meters west of the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption church on the site of the former cemetery next to a vault. The relationship between the two structures is not clear.

function

Not much is known about the function of the Fenioux death lantern. It is not even certain whether it is a lantern at all or whether the structure perhaps also had other functions. The only surviving contemporary written source on the death lanterns describes a building in this function. The source dates from around 1150. It can be found with Petrus Venerabilis , abbot of the monastery of Cluny :

“In the middle of the cemetery there is a stone structure (Structura), at the top of which there is a lamp (Lampas) whose light (Fulgor) illuminates this holy place every evening with its sign of respect (ob reverentiam) for the believers who rest there. There is also a staircase / ladder (Gradus) through which one reaches a platform (spatium), which has enough space for two or three men who sit or stand. "

In Fenioux there is no such platform at the top of the building. There, where it would be expected, there is only the shaft of the spiral staircase. These stairs are also extremely narrow and therefore impractical for transporting fuel upstairs and maintaining a fire there.

Dating

The death lantern is not dated by documentary evidence or by a building inscription. Architectural details such as bundle pillars , capital decorations and the similarities with other - albeit mostly undated - monuments of the same type and with the early Hosanna crosses , some of which have a similar structure, make it probable that the building was erected in the 12th century.

Architectural structure

Death lantern, section after Paul Abadie
Layout

The shaft of the hollow bundle pillar, which is circular in section but articulated, consists of eleven round columns lined up without gaps with carved plant capitals and profiled bases that stand on angular plinths. The substructure with the entrance door to the spiral staircase today resembles a loosely piled pile of rubble stones, which are, however, connected to one another with mortar. On the capitals, a common, circular, profiled and cantilevered transom plate summarizes the columns.

There are again thirteen pillars on it - but with a much smaller diameter. Since the diameter of the upper pillars is smaller, there are narrow spaces between them, like windows. The columns are completely equipped with simple capitals, square transoms and profiled bases. A second, round fighter plate rests on them. This carries the stone spire in the form of a steep pyramid roof with a square floor plan. The roof surfaces have a flaky structure that resembles triangular shingles or the surface structure of a pine cone. The top of the pyramid has been cut and replaced by a less steep tower on which a stone Latin cross rises. On each side of the pyramid there is a short round pillar on the edge of the circular fighter plate, which tapers barely noticeably towards the top and carries a stone ball on its top. The spiral staircase in the shaft of the tower has 33 steps.

The proportions of the building are reminiscent of Roman tombs, such as the Roman mausoleum of Julier in Glanum .

meaning

Julier Mausoleum in Glanum

The Fenioux funeral lantern is one of the largest of this type in the Poitou , only the lantern of Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron is higher .

The function and symbolism of the building are based solely on assumptions, as there are almost no contemporary sources. All attempts at explanation come from a later time and are speculation.

  • One possibility is that it is actually a lantern. A light that could fall outward from there was supposed to protect the dead and the living from the magical dangers that a cemetery harbored.
  • Striking and extremely unusual are the eleven number of the columns of the shaft and the thirteen number of the columns of the lantern. The eleven number interprets one assumption as that of the twelve apostles minus the traitor Judas , whose ( joint ) supporting function is no longer given and whose light has been extinguished through the betrayal of Jesus.
  • The 33 steps of the staircase correspond to the 33 years of Jesus' life. The number was so symbolic. Thorsten Droste writes about this: "The symbolic language of the death lantern would therefore mean that man detaches himself from the earthly realm in order to reach the eternal light, saved by Christ's work of redemption". The graphic representation of a cross-section through Fenioux's death lantern by Paul Abadie shows 47 steps and is imprecise with this information.

literature

Web links

Commons : Fenioux's Lantern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lanterne des Morts, Fenioux in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ↑ Original in Latin : Petrus, Venerabilis: De miraculis . (Ed .: Dyonisia Bouthillier). Turnholti Brepols 1988. ISBN 2-503-03832-8 , p. 160.
  3. ↑ Meeting place, para. 8th.
  4. ↑ Meeting place, para. 1.
  5. ↑ Meeting place, para. 32ff.

Coordinates: 45 ° 53 '21.1 "  N , 0 ° 35' 49.4"  W.