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Origin and history

The Sainte-Agnès chapel of Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson is a Romanesque chapel built in the 12th century, probably on the remains of a pre-Christian place of worship or an ancient villa, as suggested by the remains discovered near the "heur". Its architecture combines a primitive rectangular building and a pentagonal bedside added in the 12th century, pierced by three absidial windows and surmounted by a square bell with arrow, of late style. The nave, vaulted in a cradle, leads to a semicircular apse adorned with five blind arcades in the middle of the hangar, supported by carved crows.

The chapel, owned by the commune, was listed as historical monuments on 3 May 1974. It was restored between 1976 and 1984 by a local association, after centuries of relative abandonment. A "lantern of the dead", a square openwork turret crowned with a cornice, was added around the seventeenth century, bearing witness to late medieval funeral practices. The associate priory was mentioned in 1470 as Prioratus Sancti-Pauleti, while the village appeared in the texts in various Latin forms as early as 1209 (Sanctus-Paulus de Caysson).

Isolated 1 km northwest of the village, the chapel stands in the middle of a landscape of vineyards and olive trees, characteristic of the medieval Gard. Its sober western façade features a curved door topped by a brazed bay, while the side façades retain walled doors. The building illustrates both the simplicity of rural Romanesque constructions and their adaptation to the liturgical and symbolic needs of local communities.

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