Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The chapel of Saint-Blaise in Saint-Mitre-les-Remparts, classified as a Historical Monument in 1939, is part of the enclosure of the oppidum of Saint-Blaise, an exceptional archaeological site occupied since the Neolithic (c. 4700 BC). This place was an Etruscan counter in the 7th century BC, then a prosperous city thanks to the salt trade, before becoming a Hellenized celto-ligure oppidum. The present chapel, originally named Notre-Dame de Castelveyre in the 12th century, was dedicated to Saint Blaise in the 13th century, after the reconstruction of the rampart in 1231 and the gradual abandonment of the oppidum in the 14th century.

L-oppidum, searched in 1935 by Henri Rolland, reveals eight archaeological layers, traces of proto-urban habitats (VIth century BC) to Hellenistic fortifications (IInd century BC) and paleo-Christian remains (IVth–IXth centuries). The chapel, remodeled in the 16th and 19th centuries, has been home to the tomb of Rolland since 1970. Its Romanesque apse, oriented northeast, and its late-antical mosaics (Vth century) testify to its cultural evolution, linked to the turbulent history of Ugium, destroyed by the Saracens in 874 and then by Raymond de Turenne in 1390.

The site, classified for its surroundings in 1967 and its ponds in 2020, is protected under the ZNIEFF and Natura 2000. The chapel, a communal property, symbolizes the transition between Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Provence. Its architecture combines Romanesque influences and subsequent modifications, reflecting the successive reoccupations of the Castillon plateau, marked by wisigothic necropolises and industrial remains (metallurgy, wine storage).

External links