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Chapelle Saint-Thyrse de Robion à Castellane dans les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

Patrimoine classé
Patrimoine religieux
Chapelle romane
Art roman provençal
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

Chapelle Saint-Thyrse de Robion

    Le Brec
    04120 Castellane
Crédit photo : Sébastien Thébault - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

Bas Moyen Âge
Renaissance
Temps modernes
Révolution/Empire
XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
1300
1400
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
XIIe-XIIIe siècles
Initial construction
début XIVe siècle
First written entry
1570
Parish service attested
1697
Degradation status
1703
Major restoration
1748
Loss of parish status
1942
Summary consolidation
12 avril 1944
Historical Monument
1979
Complete restoration
2003
Reconstruction of the vault
17 mars 2015
Closure to the public
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

Chapelle Saint-Thyrse: by order of 12 April 1944

Key figures

Jean Soanen - Bishop of Senez (1696-1728) Order repairs in 1697 and 1703
Clausse - Bishop of Senez (XVI century) Attests parish service in 1570
Abbé Garnier - Local priest (XX century) Leads the consolidation of 1942
Dominique Ronsseray - Chief Architect of Historic Monuments Supervises the 1979 restoration
Serge Panarotto - Specialist historian Author of a study on the chapel (2007)
Mathias Dupuis - Archaeologist Studyed the chapel Saint-Thyrse

Origin and history

The chapel Saint-Thyrse de Robion, located 7 km south of Castellane in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, is a Romanesque building from the 12th to the 13th centuries. Isolated on a rocky plateau near the hamlet of Robion, it served as a parish church until 1748, when it was replaced by Notre-Dame. Its elongated plan, with a unique nave and apse in hemicycle, reflects the first Provencal Romanesque art. The bell tower, decorated with lumbar stripes, and traces of inner polychromy testify to its past importance.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1944 after a restoration in 1942, the chapel experienced several phases of degradation. The vault partially collapsed, resulting in repairs in the 18th century, including a frame replacing the original vault. In 2015, a municipal decree prohibited access for "risk of collapse", despite previous consolidations (1979, 2003). His supposed link with the Templars, evoked by an engraved Maltese cross, remains unproven.

The pastoral visits of the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries reveal its gradual decline: in 1697 Bishop Soanen ordered urgent repairs (roof, bell tower, unenclosed cemetery). In 1703 a general restoration was undertaken, but parish transfer in 1748 sealed its partial abandonment. In the 19th century, the neighbouring hamlet depopulated, leaving the chapel to its fate. The work of the twentieth century (concrete vault, metal cover) did not prevent its present degradation.

Architecturally, the chapel is distinguished by its apparatus treated in medium apparatus, its blind archatures and its liturgical niches. The bell tower, independent of the nave, presents twin berries and modillons typical of Provencal Romanesque art. Despite its precarious state, it retains original elements (northward, apse) and traces of its funerary use (attired cemetery).

External links