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Origin and history

The chapel Saint-Lazare, located in Angers on the right bank of Maine, is the last vestige of a leprosy founded in the early 12th century (c. 1104-1120) by the brotherhood of the bourgeois of the city. Originally, it included a chapel, a cemetery, premises for the sick (laders), as well as a barn and gardens. This charitable site, dedicated to Saint Lazarus, reflected the medieval organization of taking care of lepers, often relegated to the outskirts of cities.

In the 17th century, the chapel was enlarged and gradually lost its religious function. After the Revolution in 1791, it was sold as a national property to an individual, Léonard Desvalois, who turned it into a residential building. Divided into dwellings, it becomes unrecognizable, but a rumor persists in the neighborhood as to its origin. It was only in 1991, during an incidental archaeological intervention, that the building was rediscovered, averting its planned destruction by the municipality for a real estate project.

The chapel is safeguarded by the ARCSL (Association for the Renaissance of the Chapel of Saint Lazare), created by inhabitants, teachers and archaeologists. Thanks to their mobilization, the building was listed as historical monuments in 1992 and bought by the city of Angers. After nearly twenty years of abandonment, it was finally restored between 2008 and 2009 under the direction of architect Valérie Legrand. Since 2009, the chapel, renamed Chapelle Saint-Lazare, has served as a multi-purpose hall managed by the municipality.

Today, this monument illustrates both the medieval history of leproseries, revolutionary upheavals and contemporary issues of heritage preservation. Its term, unchanged since the Middle Ages, and its hybrid architecture (XII and XVII centuries) make it a rare testimony of the evolution of religious and urban usages in Angers.

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