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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame de Brue-Auriac Chapel, located in the Var department in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, is a 12th century religious building. Isolated on a hill 2 km south of the village of Brue-Auriac, it is attached to a priory and adjacent to the communal cemetery. Its Romanesque architecture is distinguished by a facade adorned with a frieze, a door in the heart surmounted by a carved Christ, and a dissymmetric bell tower, today deprived of its bell after a flight in 2019.

The chapel initially depended on the abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseilles, which began its renovation in 1531 and joined a house for the farmer exploiting the estate. In the 19th century, after the merger of the villages of Brue and Auriac, it served as a parish church until the inauguration of Saint George's Church in 1858. Ranked a historic monument in 1971, it bears witness to local religious and architectural history, marked by its central role in the community before becoming a protected heritage.

The building features remarkable elements such as caps with geometric motifs and an oculus above the door. Its inscription in historical monuments in 1971 (decree of 15 October) concerns both the chapel and its priory, today owned by the commune. Although disused as the main place of worship, it remains a symbol of the medieval Provençal heritage, linked to the influence of the Marseille Abbey and the evolution of local religious practices.

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