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Origin and history

The Sainte-Colombe de Cabanes church, located in the former municipality of Cabanes in Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines (Pyrénées-Orientales), is a pre-Roman building. Its oldest parts could go back to a chapel linked to a hospital relay on the Perthus road, a major historical axis towards Spain. The primitive building, marked by a nave of four arched spans in the middle of an overhanged hanger, had doubles with obliquely cushioned births, as well as lateral niches delimiting the spans.

In the 14th century, during the dispersal of the nearby monastery of Saint Andrew, the church was reportedly integrated into a priory founded by monks of this convent. This period saw the addition of a transept, built in part with recovered elements of the cloister of Saint Andrew. The original square bedside and a northern absidiole are now in ruins, while the fourth span, closed by a late wall, is now used as a bedside. The west gate, surmounted by an ellipsoidal oculus, includes re-use stones probably from Saint Andrew.

Ranked Historical Monument by decree of 5 December 1984, the church retains traces of its initial cover in shale lauzes, later replaced by hollow tiles. Its western gable, finished with three stone pillars forming a campine wall, supports a beam intended for bells. The chapel, owned by the commune, thus illustrates the architectural and religious evolution of the Roussillon between the pre-Roman and Gothic periods.

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