Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The chapel of the Maladrerie of Saint-Julien-du-Sault, located in the Yonne in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, is a 13th century religious building. It was part of a maladry, a medieval institution designed to isolate and treat lepers, attested as early as 1211 in a charter mentioning the domo leprosum Sancti Juliani. Consecrated to St Nicholas, it was near a Roman way and Yonne, like most of the maladries of the time.

The maladry welcomed all social strata, including local notables such as the son of the knight Guillaume Macher. Over the centuries, its role evolved: attached to the Hôtel-Dieu in 1695, it became a farm, then divided into two farms in 1812. The chapel, the only trace of the 13th century, was transformed into a stable before being classified as a historical monument in 1925. Its simple, milled architecture preserves original elements such as a niche and a washbasin in full hanger.

In the 19th century, the maladry underwent major changes: construction of a dwelling building in 1853, amputation of land for the Paris-Lyon railway line, and addition of intermediate soil in the chapel. During the Second World War, the Resistance installed an underground radio station there. Renovated in 2006, it was acquired by the municipality in 2015 to develop tourism activities, including a golf course inaugurated in 2014.

Today, the site combines heritage and modernity. The restored chapel is close to leisure facilities, while its medieval history and subsequent transformations testify to its adaptation to the successive needs: sanitary, agricultural, and then cultural. The excavations and archives reveal its central role in local life, from religious processions to contemporary issues of tourist development.

External links