Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Priory of Notre-Dame de l'Angle, located in Chantonnay in Vendée, was a medieval religious establishment dependent on the order of the regular canons of Saint Augustine. Founded before the 15th century, it is mentioned in ancient sources such as the Grand Gauthier under the name of Priorat us of Angulo, then in the cartular of Alliot (1648) as Priory-Cure of Our Lady of Langer, placed under the patronage of the Abbey of Saint Vincent of Nieul-sur-l'Autise. In modern times, his benefit was estimated at 1,200 pounds, and three Masses were celebrated daily.

In the 17th century, the priory was among the 343 priories of the diocese of Luçon, alongside 8 abbeys and 182 cures. Undocumented, it probably housed a small community of canons dedicated to prayer, agricultural work and pastoral ministry. Only two COMMAND Priors are known: Thibaud Chabot, seigneur de la Grève à Vouvant, who died in 1429 during the siege of Orléans, and Gabriel des Noues, seigneur of Beaumont, who partially financed the canal of Maillé in 1664 and offered his coat of arms to the priory.

The abbey of Nieul-sur-l'Autise, on which the priory was dependent, was secularized in 1721, and it is likely that no monk would reside anymore in the Angle on the eve of the Revolution. In 1792, the chapel served as a refuge for Abbé Dessein, a refractory priest of Saint Vincent-Puymaufrais, who hid there thanks to an underground and a hollow wall. Sold as a national property in 1796 to Philippe Esgonnière, the property now belongs to the Thomas family. The chapel, the only vestige of the priory, is integrated into a farm.

Architecturally, the Prioral Chapel of Notre-Dame presents a typical rectangular plan of the novel, with a flat bedside and a unique vaulted vessel in the middle of the hangar. Built at the end of the 12th century, it was redesigned at the end of the 14th century: the walls were reinforced by interior archatures, and the south windows partially walled or transformed into Gothic style. The western gable, originally pierced by an oculus, was consolidated by biased foothills. Traces of three layers of paint (apparatus and floral motifs) remain inside.

The site, located on a promontory overlooking the Petit Lay valley, was surrounded by conventual buildings today disappeared, replaced by a farm. The chapel, classified among the novel buildings of Vendée, is cited by local historians as the archivist Delhommeau and author François Semur. Its modest history reflects that of many small rural priories, missing or transformed after the Revolution.

External links