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Origin and history

The lantern of the dead of Antigny is a funeral monument located in the department of Vienna, in the commune of Antigny. Dating from the end of the 12th or early 13th century according to its architecture, it has a hollow square barrel of 7 to 9 meters high, adorned with columns with capitals "with hooks". Four openings at its top let the light of a lamp pass, turned on manually after ascending via internal notches. This type of lantern, described by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was traditionally based on a three-step platform and housed an altar.

Classified as historical monuments by order of 3 May 1884, the lantern was originally located in the centre of the old cemetery of Antigny. Threatened by road works in 1880, it was dismantled and moved to the village square (present Town Hall square), still in the enclosure of the old cemetery. Very dilapidated in 1854, it benefited from a restoration in 1909. Its architecture, including a side door to introduce the lamp and a sommital cross, reflects a symbolic function related to medieval funeral rites.

Owned by the commune of Antigny, the lantern is now near the church of Notre-Dame. Its state of conservation has varied over the centuries, with documented interventions in the 19th and 20th centuries. The lanterns of the dead, like that of Antigny, were common buildings in Poitou-Charentes and elsewhere in France, serving as both a spiritual landmark and a place of memory for the deceased. Their light, visible from afar, embodied a form of perpetual vigil.

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