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Origin and history

La Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Groseau is a Romanesque chapel located in Malaucene, in the department of Vaucluse, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It is the only vestige of the Groseau monastery, founded in 684 by Petronius, bishop of Vaison-la-Romane. This monastery, destroyed in 739 and rebuilt in 1032, housed a chapel rebuilt in 1150. The site was a retreat for Pope Clement V during his stay in Provence.

The present chapel consists of two distinct buildings: on the south, the chapel Saint-Jean-Baptiste, rectangular with a vault in a broken cradle, and on the north, the chapel Notre-Dame, surmounted by an octagonal dome decorated with the tetramorph. The latter houses a pre-Roman votive altar dedicated to the Celtic god Graselos, engraved with a Gallo-Greek inscription. The architecture, sober and antiquisant, evokes the Provence Romanesque churches of the 12th century.

Ranked a historic monument in 1862, the chapel preserves traces of its pilgrimage past, like an external staircase leading to a pulpit. The present gate, in advance, would date from the 19th century. At the parish church of Malaucene, a 19th century stained glass window represents the chapel as it was at that time.

The monastery of Groseau, whose chapel is the last testimony, played a major spiritual and historical role in Provence. Its partial destruction and successive reconstructions reflect the upheavals of the region, from the Merovingian era to the installation of the popes in Avignon. The site remains a remarkable example of Provencal Romanesque art, mixing Celtic, Gallo-Roman and Christian influences.

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