Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Notre-Dame-de-la-Miséricorde chapel, located 1.5 km northeast of Nissan-lez-Enserune (Herault), is a Wisigoth building probably built in the 6th century. It uses Roman stones from an ancient villa founded by a colon named Fulpius, whose toponym remains in the place called Foulpian. The foundations and links of the corner preserve traces of this period, while a wisigothic sword discovered in 1943 (reserved at the local museum) attests to the Gothic occupation of the place.

During the Romanesque period, the chapel underwent major changes: the north wall and the upper part of the south wall were rebuilt, and a door decorated with a Lombard frieze was added south side. The building, partially destroyed during the Wars of Religion, was restored in the 17th century with the addition of a home for a guardian hermit. An elevation in the 19th century unified the nave and bedside, while an enlargement towards the west changed its grip.

In 1974, the demolition of a sacristy revealed the original Wisigothic bedside and a Roman absidial window, previously masked. Classified as a historical monument in 1981, the chapel belongs to the commune. Its architecture thus combines wisigoth elements (low apparatus), novels (frise, rectification of the walls) and modern (cradle vault, arched porch), illustrating its evolution over more than a millennium.

The territory of Nissan-lez-Enserune houses another Visigothic chapel, St.Christol, highlighting the historical importance of this region under Gothic rule. The medieval toponyms Aniscianum (1198) and Anicianum (1199), found in the cartulars of Agde, evoke the ancient anchoring of the settlement around these places of worship.

External links