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Origin and history

The Chapel Saint-Léonce de Valderoure is a Catholic building located in the Alpes-Maritimes, in the commune of Valderoure. Former priory dependent on the abbey of Lérins, it presents architectural elements characteristic as a broken arch portal and a window called "lepers", located 3 meters high. This opening allowed patients to follow the Mass from outside, while a bentier sealed in the wall was accessible to them. Another bentier, located at normal height, is to the right of the entrance.

Inside, a arch in the middle of the hanger separates the arched abside from the nave. A re-used stone, decorated with vestiges of columns, is embedded in the southwest corner. The chapel also houses a partitioned Roman sarcophagus, used as a four-compartment ossuary, engraved on its front. The building, restored over the centuries, was listed as historical monuments on September 10, 1947.

The chapel illustrates the religious and social history of the region, especially through its facilities for lepers, reflecting the charitable practices and health constraints of the Middle Ages. Its architecture combines Romanesque elements and ancient re-uses, reflecting the successive transformations of the site between the 12th and 18th centuries. The property of the municipality remains a vestige marked by its monastic past and its community function.

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