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Origin and history

The crypt of Saint-Girons, located in Hagetmau in the Landes, is the only remaining vestige of the ancient 12th century Abbey Church, destroyed in 1904. Classified as a historical monument in 1862, it illustrates Romanesque art by its fourteen carved capitals, including one representing the parable of Lazarus. Its Gallo-Roman marble columns, topped by historic tiles, support a restored vault in the early twentieth century. The crypt, semi-subterranean, was intended to house the sarcophagus of Saint Girons, an evangelizer who died as a martyr around 365 (or 409) after fighting the Arian Wisigoths.

According to tradition, Charlemagne ordered in 778 the construction of a monumental tomb for Saint Girons, whose relics were transferred to Bordeaux to protect them. The abbey, founded on the edge of the Louts on the site of martyrdom, was looted several times: by the Normans in 859, the English in 1324, then destroyed in 1569 by Protestants during the wars of Religion. The relics were desecrated, and six canons were murdered. After the Revolution, the abbey, secularized in 1791, was gradually abandoned before its demolition in 1904, saving only the crypt.

The abbey church, originally Romanesque, was modified in the Gothic era: its two-storey bedside, flanked by absidioles, was replaced by a five-sided bedside reinforced with foothills. The nave, carpented and accompanied by a northern collateral, had a gothic portal and a massive bell tower. Despite its inscription in 1840, the church was never protected and was demolished to give way to the new parish church Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, inaugurated in 1886. The crypt, restored between 1905 and 1908 by architect Henri Rapine, then became a preserved setting for his sculptures, testifying to the role of the Jacquarian stage of Hagetmau.

The crypt, rectangular (12 m by 7.6 m), organizes around a modern vestibule giving access to two stairways leading to the lower room. His capitals, works by artists from Saint-Sever, combine plant motifs (stylized plants), fantastic animals (smiling lions, dragon-tailed birds) and biblical scenes. These representations, intended for the faithful and pilgrims, recall the dual spiritual and artistic role of the abbey. The scenes of the poor rich and Lazarus highlight the moralizing dimension of Roman art, while angels and demons evoke the last judgment.

The history of the abbey reflects regional tumults: after its secularization in 1330 by Abbé Guillaume Loup, it declined until its abolition in 1791. Attempts of monastic revival (Ursulines in 1807, Jesuits in 1855) failed. The crypt, today a communal property, remains a place of memory, hosting even a literary prize in poetry (Crypt Prize), where the winners read their works between its walls full of history.

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