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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church of Saint-André d'Évol, built in the 11th century in the hamlet of Évol (comune of Ollette, Pyrénées-Orientales), is an emblematic example of Catalan Romanesque art. Its Latin cross plan, formed by a unique nave extended by a semicircular apse, is enriched by a square tower bell tower and a rosary chapel added in the eighteenth century. Adorned with lumbar archatures and broad leesenes, and its two hollowed inner apsidioles – a rarity evoking the Trinity – testify to archaic architectural influences. Ranked a historical monument in 1943, it lost its parish status in the 17th century to the church of Olette, but retained a cult activity thanks to a fraternity of the rosary founded in 1577, still active several centuries later.

The site, built on a slope in the cemetery of Flight at 750 m above sea level, is accessible by a staircase from the village. His conjurador (structure open to the four winds) was used by priests to conjure up storms, attributed to local witches, until the 20th century. The furniture, exceptionally preserved, includes Gothic and Baroque altarpieces (15th-15th centuries), Romanesque statues (like a 13th-century Virgin with Child), and goldsmithy pieces (calices, silver cross-reliquary, dated 17th-15th centuries). These objects, often classified as historical monuments, illustrate the artistic and devout richness of this isolated Pyrenean valley, marked by legends such as the Miracle of Our Lady of Flight (1647), where a priest saved from a shipwreck attributes his survival to the intercession of the Virgin of the Rosary.

The history of the church is linked to the tensions between Évol and Olette: in the 16th century, the inhabitants of Olette, more numerous, challenged the authority of the parish priest of Evol, leading to the transfer of the parish seat in 1603. The presbytery, the house of the Xth–Xth century, according to Fr.Llopet (cured from 1938 to 1945), became a place of municipal meetings after the Revolution. Renovated in the 21st century thanks to the Heritage Foundation, it completes a collection of primitive Romanesque art, Catalan baroque and popular traditions, such as the monthly processions of the Virgin in her cadireta (from the 17th century procession).

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