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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The chapel of Saint-Pau, located in Sos en Lot-et-Garonne, is a Romanesque building built in the 12th century. It features a broken vaulted choir and traces of similar vaults in the nave, as well as a flat bedside. The nave, divided into two parts, preserves a typical Romanesque window with a back arch in small bellows. An arc modified in the 16th or 17th centuries marks the passage between the two sections. The porch, added around the 16th century, incorporates domestic facilities (lined, sink, closet), while three Romanesque windows remain in the second part of the nave. The square bedside, lined with benches, and the walls are covered with frescoes, some of which date from the seventeenth century and recall the naive style of the church of Saint-Simon (Saint-Pé-Saint-Simon).

In the 15th century, the chapel was enlarged by a western span, with a bell tower and a broken arched western gate topped by a lily-flowered shield. The early nave is then enhanced to align with this new span. According to G. Tholin's observations, the building was lined with a cemetery wall pierced by cannon guns, which disappeared today, dating from the late 15th or early 16th century. In 1547, Arnaud Claverie described the chapel as vaulted, bleached and enclosed in a stone cemetery, in good condition. The wall paintings of the choir and the triumphal arch, comparable to those of Saint-Simon (dated 1823), bear witness to a late decoration.

Classified as a Historical Monument in 1995, the chapel belongs to the municipality of Sos. Its architecture thus combines primitive Romanesque elements (windows, vaults) and medieval or modern additions (porch, frescoes), reflecting a complex history and varied uses over the centuries.

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