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Origin and history

The Saint-Étienne chapel, located in the Malakoff-Saint-Donatien district of Nantes, is located in the heart of an ancient Christianized pagan necropolis, now the Saint-Donatien cemetery. This place, close to the eponymous basilica, marks the presumed location of the martyrdom of Saints Donatien and Rogatian around 304. The chapel, built around 510 under the episcopate of Epiphany (bishop from 502 to 518), is considered the oldest religious building in the diocese of Nantes.

According to tradition, it was built to house relics of St Stephen, the first martyr deacon, whom Bishop Epiphanus had reported from Jerusalem. Originally preserved in the Cathedral of Nantes, these relics made the chapel a place of pilgrimage as soon as it was built. Over the centuries, its name evolved ("Saint-Georges", "Saint-Agapit"), and it underwent major changes in the 15th to 16th centuries, then in the 18th century in a neo-classical style.

During the Revolution, after the fire of the church of St.Donatien in 1796, the chapel temporarily served as a place of worship. Sold as national property to the Peccot brothers (a commissioner of the government and an architect), it was bought by parishioners in 1802. In the 20th century, after sheltering prehistoric remains from excavations, it was restored. Since 1984, the chapel has been listed as historical monuments, preserving its western wall of the fifth century, characteristic of Paleo-Christian architecture.

Architecturally, the chapel has a rectangular plan (17.5 m x 7.5 m) with a two-sided roof culminating at 8 metres. The west wall, kept 4 metres high, reveals a technique of construction in small rubbles and red bricks typical of the High Middle Ages. The side façades, pierced with bays in the middle of the skin and an 18th century door, contrast with the bedside where a broken Gothic bay was partially altered. These elements illustrate the historical strata of the building from the 5th to the 18th century.

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