Logo Musée du Patrimoine

All French heritage classified by regions, departments and cities

Conjurador de Serralongue dans les Pyrénées-Orientales

Patrimoine classé
Patrimoine religieux
Calvaire

Conjurador de Serralongue

    Le Village
    66230 Serralongue
Ownership of the municipality
Conjurador de Serralongue
Conjurador de Serralongue
Conjurador de Serralongue
Conjurador de Serralongue
Crédit photo : Palauenc05 - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

Époque contemporaine
2000
9 avril 1987
Historical Monument
Fin du XIXe siècle
Construction of the Conjurador
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

Conjurador (Le) (Case A 7): entry by order of 9 April 1987

Key figures

Prêtre de Serralongue - Ritual officer Read gospels and conjurations in Catalan.
Jean-Auguste Brutails - History of Religious Art Author of a study on the Roussillon (1896).

Origin and history

The Serralongue Conjurador is a square plan building, measuring 3 meters from the side, topped by a lauze pyramidal roof and a cross. Open on one side and with arcades on the other, it houses in niches the statues of the four Evangelists. Built in the late 19th century, it served as a place of conjuration against thunderstorms and natural disasters, according to a ritual involving the local priest and prayers in Catalan.

During the ceremonies, the priest went in procession to the Conjurador to invoke the saints, especially during the Rogations in order to bless the harvests. He read the gospel corresponding to the saint facing the storm, then pronounced a formula in Catalan: "San Joan, Sant Mateu, Sant Marc i Sant Roc, guardeu-nos de pedra i de foc." This ritual was intended to protect the village from hails, fires and other climatic scourges, reflecting the popular Pyrenean beliefs of the time.

The building, characteristic of the villages of Pyrenean Piedmont and Aragon, is built in granite bellows with brick frames for bays and niches. Its pyramidal roof, adorned with prominent stones bearing pointed iron rods, symbolized protection against evil forces. Ranked a Historical Monument in 1987, it illustrates vernacular religious architecture linked to agrarian practices and Catalan conjuratory traditions.

Traditionally, the statues of the Evangelists, now missing or displaced, played a central role in rituals. The church servant was moving toward the direction of the weather to implore their intervention, thus combining Christian symbolism with local beliefs. The Conjurador remains a unique testimony of the religious and agricultural practices of the Eastern Pyrenees in the 19th century.

External links