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Origin and history

The chapel Saint-Julien de Montredon, located in Salinelles in the Gard, is a Romanesque building built in the 11th and 12th centuries on the remains of a Gallo-Roman villa. The excavations revealed ancient elements such as thermal pipes, a white marble lintel and a sealed identification plate in the passage between the two buildings. These remains bear witness to the Roman occupation of the site, thanks in particular to a nearby Roman road leading to Ambrussum.

The present building consists of two parallel chapels: the oldest (XI century), in the north, belonged to a priory dependent on the abbey of Psalmody, while the second (XII century), in the south, was probably built by the lords of Montredon. The two chapels, damaged during the Wars of Religion, were restored in the seventeenth century. Their dual structure reflects both a religious use (pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela) and a defensive function, as evidenced by the primitive Gothic style of the southern chapel.

The northern chapel, an example of Languedoc Romanesque art, features a semicircular bedside adorned with leesenes and lumbar bands, topped by a frieze in gear teeth. Its massive bell tower and powerful foothills contrast with the southern chapel, covered with lauzes and equipped with a polygonal bedside. The site, classified as a historical monument in 1973, also illustrates the re-use of ancient techniques: its arches of full-cinetre, assembled with iron rods, recall those of the temple of Diane at Nîmes, while the natural calcite solds the stones between them.

The medieval texts mention Montredon under the names Mons Rotundus (1094, 1125) or Castrum de Monte-Rotundo (1384), confirming its attachment to the viguria of Sommières and the diocese of Nîmes. The chapel, quoted as Ecclesia de Monte-Rotundo in 1386, was a major place of worship, linked to the archidiaconate of Alès. Its carved decoration (quadrupeds, birds, basil) and Lombard archatures make it a rare testimony of southern religious architecture.

Today owned by the commune, the chapel Saint-Julien de Montredon preserves traces of its multifaceted past: Roman villa, medieval priory, stop for pilgrims and fortified building. Its ranking in 1973 and its location near the Vidourle make it a key heritage site of Occitanie, mixing ancient history, Romanesque art and medieval heritage.

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