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Origin and history

The Saint-Sauveur church of Casesnoves, located in Ille-sur-Têt in the Pyrénées-Orientales, is a Romanesque building built around 1050. Its modest architecture, with a unique nave and a semicircular bedside, reflects its medieval origin. The village of Casesnoves, now abandoned, was located on a dejection cone near the Tet River, in an area of transition between the cliffs and the fertile plain of Roussillon.

In the 11th century, the church was erected in two possible phases: a first construction, followed by an elevation before the end of the century. A square tower is added shortly afterwards. At the beginning of the 12th century, the interior was decorated with murals, now missing but rediscovered in 1953 by historian Marcel Durliat. These frescoes, of exceptional quality, sparked a controversy in 1954 when they were extracted and illegally sold by an antique dealer, Marcel Simon.

The church underwent several modifications between the 13th and 14th centuries: the nave was extended, a bell tower was added, and a lateral chapel was built to the north. The village of Casesnoves, declining from the 14th century, saw its parish attached to Ille-sur-Têt in 1561. During the Revolution, the building, sold as a national property, became an agricultural warehouse. In 1840, a tin calyx from the 12th or 13th century and a relic box were discovered there, and then donated to the Cluny Museum.

In 1955, the church was classified as a historical monument, but the paintings, stolen, reappeared in Switzerland in 1978 during an exhibition. After trials, the town of Ille-sur-Têt purchased the building in 1990 and began its restoration. The frescoes, legally acquired by the Abegg Foundation, remain in Switzerland. The church, now consolidated, bears witness to Catalan Romanesque art and the tumults of its history.

The site, once surrounded by a cemetery, also illustrates the evolution of the Roussillon landscape, between alluvial lands dedicated to orchards and plateaus covered with moors. Its current isolation contrasts with its past role as a place of worship and assembly for a declining rural community in the late Middle Ages.

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