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Origin and history

The Saint Barthélemy church of Jonqueroles, also called Sant Bertomieu de Joncaròlas en Occitan, is a pre-Roman church in Bélesta, in the Eastern Pyrenees. Built probably in the 10th century, it illustrates the religious architecture before the year Mil with its unique rectangular nave and its trapezoidal apse slightly shifted southward. Its overpassed arches (greater than half a circle) and its rare openings, including a southern gate, are characteristic of the churches of this period.

The first written mention of Jonqueroles dates back to 842 in the form of luncariolas, a toponym linked to the Latin Juncus ("junc") evoking a small marshy place. The church was first mentioned in 1020 in the will of Bernard Taillefer, Count of Besalú, who made it a parish. In 1154, donations to the Templars by the Cassanyes family and the Vernets attested to its local importance. The village seems to disappear in the 14th century, but the cure still remains a century later.

Archaeological excavations carried out from the 1980s to the 1990s (notably by Patrice Alessandri and Valérie Porra) revealed elements of fortification and currencies, suggesting a defensive or community role. The building, now in ruins, bears witness to the religious and political dynamics of the medieval Fenouillèdes, between Catalan influence and local seigneuries. Its gradual abandonment reflects the demographic and territorial upheavals of the region after the fourteenth century.

The toponyme Jonqueroles evolved over the centuries: loncheroliis (1154), Joncheroles (1340), and Jonquerolles (1400). This name, associated with the junkyard (where the rush grows), recalls the past environmental landscape. The church, although disused, remains a historical marker of the cultural exchanges between Roussillon and Catalonia, as evidenced by the studies of Lluís Basseda or Géraldine Mallet.

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