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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The chapel of Saint Clamens, located in Gers in Occitanie, is a 11th century Romanesque building. It was built near the remains of a Roman villa of Antistii, whose elements (a funeral cippe and a sarcophagus of the fourth century) were reused, especially as altar base. Dedicated to Saint Clement (of which Clamens is the Gascony form), it served as a parish seat and housed an abbey today disappeared. The commune of Saint-Clamens was attached to Belloc in 1822 to form Belloc-Saint-Clamens, 5 km north of Mirande, on a jacquary route.

The chapel has retained its original plan (single rectangular nave and polygonal choir) without major changes, except the addition of a southwest annex to the sixteenth century, extended by an awning above the southern gate. The dates 1565 and 1751, engraved in the masonry, correspond to restoration campaigns. Its architecture is distinguished by broad foothills, a bell tower-wall with two bays, and an apparatus of atypical walls for the region, with blocks higher than wide. Leabside, reinforced by three foothills, houses carved cubic columns and capital windows.

Inside, the Gallo-Roman sarcophagus in white marble of Saint-Béat (fourth century, school of Arles) supports the altar. Its decor depicts winged putti and a medallion with the portrait of a young man. The chapel also houses an octagonal Gothic baptismal tank, decorated with polylobed arches, and frescoes from the 16th and 17th centuries: a Crucifixion in the nave (delegated in 1966) and a representation of Saint Clement with a monk in the choir. Ranked a historic monument on October 2, 1890, it now belongs to the commune.

Its architectural history reveals a continuity of liturgical use, despite the disappearance of the associated abbey. The use of ancient materials and the persistence of its term (saint Clement) underline its anchoring in local history, between Gallo-Roman heritage and medieval Jacquarian tradition. The restorations of the 16th and 18th centuries, although discreet, bear witness to an early desire for preservation, well before its official classification.

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