Charroux Abbey

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Octagonal, 34 m high crossing and bell tower of the former Saint-Sauveur abbey in Charroux; the spire is missing.

The ruins of the Abbey of Saint-Sauveur de Charroux are in Charroux in the Vienne department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region .

history

Foundation, endowment

The Benedictine Abbey of Charroux was founded - following its own chronicle - in the early days of the reign of Charlemagne by Roger, Count of Limoges , and his wife Eufrasia with twelve monks. The couple gave the abbey property in the Poitou , Limousin , Auvergne and Périgord regions . Shortly after 790, Count Roger subordinated the abbey to the king, who in turn granted it ecclesiastical immunity . Charles gave the abbey the cross relic that had been sent to him by the Patriarch of Jerusalem . On this basis, Charroux quickly became a regional center of faith, a place of pilgrimage, and also acquired cultural importance. The monastery treasure lost today and the library are already described in a poem by Theodulf von Orléans († 821). The commentary on Matthew by Claudius of Turin († around 827) is dedicated to the Charroux monastery.

In 815, Louis the Pious confirmed the abbey's immunity. Astronomus also reports that at Ludwig's instigation, the previously wooden monastery buildings were rebuilt in stone. In 830 (at that time more than eighty monks lived in Charroux) Ludwig and his son Lothar gave the monastery further goods in the dioceses of Beauvais, Reims and Meaux, granted navigation rights on the Loire and an exemption from customs duties. The imperial half-brother Hugo was exiled to Charroux before he became Arch Chancellor of Ludwig in 834 ; after his death (844) he was buried here.

Charles the Bald also confirmed the abbey's immunity, but had to intervene to secure its position against the claims of the regional counts. Before the Norman raids , which forced the monks to flee, the cross relic was brought to Angoulême in safety.

Almost no buildings from this period have been preserved. There are two capitals in Charroux and in Poitiers the fragment of Abbot Juste's funerary inscription from around 817.

The middle age

Four councils were held in Charroux within two centuries, including that of 989, at which the peace of God was proclaimed for the first time by Duke Wilhelm IV of Aquitaine . The abbey was reformed in 1014 after Duke William V of Aquitaine expelled Abbot Pierre because of simony .

From 1017 Abbot Geoffrey ordered extensive construction work after a war between the nobles of Poitevin around 1000 affected the abbey several times. However, the structures were destroyed several times in the fires that followed. Probably in 1027 another council took place in Charroux, at which Manichaeism was condemned in southern France, and at which the first of these fires raged in the monastery. The then rebuilt church was in 1047 by Pope Leo IX. consecrated, but this building also burned down within a few months.

In 1082, the abbey was rebuilt, using new construction principles (columns in quadrangle , the nave with side aisles and high windows, pierced stone arches), but also archaisms from Carolingian architecture (the bell tower, the apse with beveled walls). At 114 meters in length, the abbey church was one of the largest in Christianity at the time.

In 1096, Pope Urban II consecrated a new high altar above the crypt in the center of the rotunda , which was illuminated by the tower's lantern . It was Urban II who guaranteed the property rights of the monastery to the counts and bishops, as well as ecclesiastical immunity, the autonomous election of the abbots, the inviolability of property and the free administration of the abbey and its possessions.

The end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century thus represent the high point in the history of the Saint-Sauveur Abbey. At that time it had 96 churches in 16 dioceses in France, but also England and Flanders. Dukes and counts came to visit or had their children raised here. Philip I of France and Henry I of England stayed in the abbey. In the 13th century the positive development continued; In 1269 a Gothic portal was built on the west facade of the monastery church, a triple portal that corresponded to the three-aisled architecture of the church, plus a vestibule with a bell tower and two battlements to protect the building.

The downfall

With the beginning of the Hundred Years War (1337) the abbey began to decline. Choir shirts, goblets, books and chronicles were relocated to Poitiers for safety , but Poitiers itself was conquered in 1345. In 1385 there were only forty monks left in Charroux. The abbey's depopulation did not stop during this troubled period, and when the monastery 's revenues fell to rock bottom the last twenty monks were eventually forced to give up the abbey. In 1422 it was burned down again.

In 1444 Jean Chaperon was appointed abbot, who managed to restore the monastery during the thirty years of his abbate. Mauprévoir Castle became the abbot's habitual residence during this period. In 1471, 152 churches in eleven dioceses, sixty priories and three subsidiary monasteries ( Ham-en-Artois (Saint-Sauveur Abbey), Issoire and Andres ) belonged to Charroux Abbey.

With the death of Jean Chaperon, the future of the abbey seemed secure, but with the introduction of the commendate abbot system in the 16th century, a long period of agony began. Like many other Abbeys in Poitou, the monastery fell into disrepair at this time, repairs were no longer carried out, the monastery treasures were stolen, the bells were melted down, and the income was spent by the commendatabbots at the royal court. From 1561 the monastery chapter no longer met because of the Huguenot Wars . The abbey was plundered and devastated three times (1561, 1569 and 1587). After 1580 even the ten remaining monks could no longer live in the abbey.

A patent from Louis XV. in 1760 the end of the abbey finally heralded. On April 1, 1762, the closure by a papal bull Clement XIII. officially. Ownership of the monastery was transferred to the Saint-Julien Abbey in Brioude . The Parlement registered the final closure in 1780. When the buildings were sold as national property in 1790, the church was in ruins, most of it was used as a quarry, only the part that Charles de Grandmaison Loiseau (1740-1797), the pastor of Surin, acquired, remained. After the Société des antiquaires de l'Ouest, created in 1834 under its President Charles de Chergé and Prosper Mérimée, campaigned for the preservation of the ruins, the bell tower was classified as a Monument historique in 1846 and 37 statues from the former Gothic portal were re-erected in the chapter house.

Abbey architecture

The plan of the building

The original plan of the abbey church of Saint-Sauveur with the wide rotunda between the choir and nave is based on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem . The rotunda consisted of a tower, which was surrounded by three ambulances. In the north and south there were two chapels instead of a transept. In the east the choir was reserved for the monks, in the west the main nave flanked by side aisles, which ended in an imposing facade. Under the tower was the crypt, on which the high altar stood.

The octagonal tower

Of this church only the tower, the center of the rotunda called Tour Charlemagne from the 11th century, has been preserved. It has a diameter of twelve meters and is 37 meters high. Its floor plan is octagonal. The lower part consists of eight interconnected quatrefoil columns connected midway through a series of circular arcs, and were originally inside the church. A band of quarry stone indicates the height of the vault. The altar was illuminated through the tall windows above. The high altar was placed in the middle, directly above the crypt in which the relics were displayed. Access to the crypt was via a staircase in the northeast.

The rotunda

The rotunda had a triple ambulatory. This facility made it possible to receive the pilgrims and let them walk around the relics without disturbing the ceremonies or meditations of the monks. 50 to 70 capitals from the third quarter of the twelfth century decorated the ambulatory. Some of them have been preserved from the wall of the choir; two were reused in a house in the village of Charroux, two more are on display in the chapter house.

The portal

Three Gothic portals were placed in front of the Romanesque facade in 1269. The sculptures in these portals, which have been preserved, represent the pinnacle of Poitou's Gothic stonemasonry. A lithograph by Thiollet from 1822 gives an overview: the foolish virgins and the wise virgins, saints, prophets, apostles, angels. The portal was carved as the Last Judgment. The preserved parts of the portal are also shown in the chapter house.

The monastery buildings

The monastery buildings were in the south, in the extension of the transept with the chapter house, a covered corridor and a hall with four ribbed vaults , which rests on a central pillar. The buildings date from the 13th century. The chapter house was converted into the Romanesque church under Abbot Jean Chaperon with eight pointed arches and a Gothic door .

List of Abbots

Regular abbots

  1. Dominicus, around 783, founding dept
  2. David, soon after 790, the abbey becomes subordinate to the king
  3. Justus, 817
  4. Gombaud I (Guntbaldus), 830-832
  5. Walefredus, approx. 840–861
  6. Guillaume I., 862-869
  7. Frotaire, 869–874, also Archbishop of Bordeaux and Archbishop of Bourges , † around 889 at Placentia
  8. Grimpharius (Grinferius), 874–879 ...
  9. Alboin, until 937, then Bishop of Poitiers , Abbot of Saint-Cyprien in Poitiers and Nouaillé , † 962
  10. Adalbald, later abbot in Tulle , Uzerche , Saint-Augustin and Saint-Martial in Limoges (998), † 1007
  11. Pierre I, until 1013, expelled from Aquitaine because of the simony of William V.
  12. Gombaud II, 1013-1017, a former monk from Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, where he was later abbot, † 1023
  13. Hugues I, elected and † 1017
  14. Geoffroy I., 1017-1018
  15. Rainald (or Reginald)
  16. Foucher, 1028-1040
  17. Hugues II, 1050-1061
  18. Fulcrade, 1077-1092
  19. Pierre II., 1092– ...
  20. Foulques, 1113-1148
  21. Jourdain, 1155– ...
  22. Guillaume II, 1180-1187
  23. Geoffrey II, 1195
  24. William III, 1203
  25. Hugues III, 1208-1210
  26. Jourdain II, 1217
  27. Emeric, 1217-1220
  28. Jourdain III, 1234
  29. Aymeri, 1261-1266
  30. Guillaume IV., 1269–
  31. Pierre III., 1279-1282
  32. Gui de Baussay
  33. Raimond de Châteauneuf, 1295-1308
  34. Pierre IV Bertaud 1340
  35. Mathieu, until 1358, then Bishop of Aire (?)
  36. Peter V. la Plotte, 1372
  37. Gerald Jauviond, 1384–1393, former abbot of Saint-Martin-les-Limoges and Saint-Martial de Limoges
  38. Bertrand, 1398
  39. Adhemar, 1399 - January 24, 1427
  40. Hugues Blanchard, January 1427 - ...
  41. Guillaume IV. Robert, 1436-1444
  42. Jean I. Chaperon, 1444-1474
  43. Louis I. Fresneau, 1474–1504, his nephew (Commendatarabbot)
  44. Geoffrey III. de Cluys de Briantes, 1504–1521, former prior

Commendati abbots

  1. Pierre VI. Chat owner de la Rocheposay, 1521–1543, exchanged Charroux for the Grainetière Abbey
  2. Lazare de Baïf , 1543–1547, his cousin, former abbot of Grainetière
  3. René de Daillon Lude, 1547 - resignation in 1567, Bishop of Luçon (not consecrated) 1552–1562, Bishop of Bayeux 1590, commander of the Order of the Holy Spirit (1578) and Councilor of State under Henry IV , also Abbot of Moreilles (1548–1560) , La Boissiere (1550), Le Châtelliers (1562) and Chaloché (1584), † March 8, 1600 in Briançon near Chinon, at the age of 74 ( Daillon House )
  4. Pantaléon de la Rochejaubert ... - Resignation 1588
  5. François de la Rochejaubert, around 1588–1614, former chaplain of Saint-Jean-d'Angély .
  6. Jean II. De la Rochejaubert, 1614-1635
  7. Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu , † December 4, 1642
  8. Richard Smith, ... - Resigned in 1648, English nobleman, titular bishop of Chalcedon (1624), Vicar Apostolic of England and Scotland, † March 18, 1655 in Paris at the age of 88
  9. Jules, Cardinal Mazarin , 1648 - resignation 1650, † March 9, 1661
  10. Louis II. Maurice de la Trémoille, Comte de Laval, 1651–1681, Peer of France , Abbot of Sainte-Croix de Talmont (1655)
  11. Frédéric Guillaume de la Trémoille, Prince de Talmont, March 21, 1681, left the clergy in 1689, Abbot of Sainte-Croix de Talmont ( La Trémoille house )
  12. Charles Frotier de La Coste- Messelière, April 9, 1689–1708, Dean to Saint-Hilaire-de-Poitiers
  13. François de Crussol d'Uzès d'Amboise, July 30, 1727 - † May 30, 1758, Bishop of Blois (June 27, 1734), then Archbishop of Toulouse (August 15, 1753), Abbot of Saint-Germain d'Auxerre (1738) ( House Crussol )
  14. Simon de Montmorillon, 1758– ...

Source: Gallia Christiana

literature

  • Liber de constitutione Karrofensis coenobii, 12th century
  • de la Fontenelle, "Les coutumes de Charroux, XIIe siècle", Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest 9 (1843)
  • G. Chapeau, "L'église abbatiale de Charroux", Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de l'Ouest 8 (1928)
  • Pierre de Montsabert, "Chartes es documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'abbaye de Charroux", Archives historique du Poitou (1911)
  • Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques XII, pp. 540-541
  • Amis du Pays Charlois, "Abbaye de Charroux", Charroux
  • Henri-Paul Eydoux, "Une ruine grandiose et insolite: l'église de l'abbaye de Charroux", Le Bâtiment, 1977, Volume 3, No. 9, pp. 85-88
  • Jean Cabanot, "Le trésor des reliques de Saint-Sauveur de Charroux, center et reflet de la vie spirituelle de l'abbaye, Center et reflet de la vie spirituelle de l'abbaye", in: Bulletin de la société des antiquaires de l 'Ouest, 1981, pp. 103-123.
  • Yves Blomme, "Poitou gothique" (1993) ISBN 978-2-7084-0439-7
  • Robert-Henri Bautier: Charroux . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 2, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7608-8902-6 , Sp. 1734-1736.

Web links

Commons : Charroux Abbey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Ademar von Chabannes
  2. ↑ The names of the monks in the Abbey of Reichenau fraternization book lists

Coordinates: 46 ° 8 ′ 35 ″  N , 0 ° 24 ′ 16 ″  E