Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The hermitage of Saint-Pancrace, located on the town of Grambois in the Vaucluse, is an ancient Monacal building inscribed with historical monuments. Built in the 17th century, it was inhabited until the French Revolution. The adjacent chapel, dated from the 14th century, was extended to the 18th century by a porch decorated with frescoes inspired by the Quattrocento. These frescoes, made in 1912, represent a Pietà, a Sermon in the mountain and an Adoration of shepherds and kings, signed by artists Georges Dufrenoy, Alfred Lombard and Pierre Girieud.

The site also includes a 19th-century cemetery surrounded by cypress trees, home to five family mausoleums, including a six-metre pyramid dedicated to Josephine Bonnin, who died at the age of 28. The poems engraved on his faces, now partially erased, paid tribute to him. The whole (chapel, hermitage, cemetery and surroundings) was inscribed in the historical monuments by order of 13 March 1995, although the site remains a private property not open to the public.

Architecturally, the chapel consists of four spans completed by a flat bedside, with side chapels arranged in old blind arcades. The porch, vaulted with edges, precedes the entrance and houses the most remarkable frescoes. The hermitage housing body, adjacent to the south wall, includes a vaulted ground floor in a cradle and a floor served by a square staircase. The wall-type bell tower overlooks the triumphal arch.

The frescoes of the narthex, dated 1912, illustrate dramatic religious scenes, such as the Pietà de Dufrenoy, described by the critic Joachim Gasquet as a work of "dramatic intensity" evoking Tintoret or Beethoven. The central fresco, The Sermon in the mountain of Alfred Lombard, staged a Christ teaching a diverse audience, while the Adoration of the Shepherds and Kings of Peter Girieud unfolds a colorful palette in an exotic landscape, despite gaps due to erosion.

The cemetery, located in the east, is surrounded by a square enclosure planted with cypress trees. It houses the burials of the Bonnin, Bec and Fitch-Douglas families, marked by mausoleums carved by Marseille artists. Joseph Bonnin's goddaughter Josephine Bonnin's funeral pyramid dominates space. The poems engraved on her faces, now illegible, showed the affection extended to this young woman who died prematurely in Geneva.

The Hermitage and its chapel, reworked several times, reflect a complex history, mixing religious evolution, sacred art and family memory. Their classification in 1995 underscores their heritage value, although their access remains restricted. Historical sources, such as the dictionaries of Jules Courtet (1876) and Robert Bailly (1986), as well as the bases Mérimée and Clochers de France, document their architectural evolution and their anchoring in the Provençal landscape.

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