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Origin and history

The Saint-Blaise chapel of Saint-Jean-le-Vieux, built in the 12th century, was originally a Romanesque building with an elongated plan, a single ship and semicircular apse. Today, only part of the nave remains, with architectural traces such as a sandstone oculus, blocked windows and a three-piece portal in broken arches. Inside, there is a niche and a fire topped by a broken arc, probably added to the 13th century. The site, named Apat Ospitalea, housed a commandary, a hospital and a mill linked to the Order of Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, as evidenced by a mention in the Bayonne Golden Book in 1194 under the name "Hospital and Oratorium of Apate".

The chapel, abandoned since the 18th century, was already in poor condition during a pastoral visit in 1703. His semicircular apse was destroyed in 1902, leaving only visible foundations. In 1922, its structure was rebuilt, but the building, sold as a national good during the Revolution, was finally transformed into an agricultural shed in the 20th century. The commandary was incorporated into the parish of Saint-Blaise d'Apat Ospitalea in 1803, before the adjacent hospital was demolished in the 1950s. Current remains, including discoidal steles from the missing cemetery, have been protected since 1987.

The site illustrates the medieval history of hospital orders in Aquitaine, with a Romanesque chapel that served both as a place of worship and as a territorial marker for the commandery. Its decline reflects the post-revolutionary upheavals, where ecclesiastical goods were often alienated or reassigned. Today, the remaining parts (truncated nave, gate, fire) offer a fragmentary but precious testimony of this time, although the building is now a private property inaccessible to the public.

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