THE SAINT-GEORGES CHAPEL: ARCHITECTURE
Following the pre-romanesque tradition, the chapel is exactly orientated east/west. Its construction is made of a single nave and a quadrangular apse that is 14 metres long and 5.2 metres at its widest.
The choir end is narrower than the nave and opens into it through an overhead triumphal arch.
The sidewalls of the nave have almost completely disappeared. The remains of the wall behind (west) are about a metre high. It is probable that a door on the south side gave access to the nave.
At the end of the nave is a monolithic doorstep made by orange and ochre coloured sandstone (1.17 x 0.57 m). It shows no signs of wear and may not be the original doorstep.
Under the northwest corner is a receptacle for a sarcophagus; its east extremity serves partially as a support for the base of the triumphal arch.
There are many
irregularities in the parallelism of the walls with the sidewalls becoming
narrower towards the east.
Many pre-romanesque churches have this feature. Under the choir window approaching the south end of the church, there is a little alcove built in a style that suggests that it was probably only added in the 16th century, (beveled frame and other details)..
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Being able to date this alcove is very helpful as it indicates that the chapel was regularly used in the 16th century.
The choir is lit on the south and east sides by two openings with simple interior bevels.
One of the windows with its strangely asymmetrical positioning has been very damaged and offers few clues to its purpose.
But the south window is perfectly preserved: it is extremely narrow, only 12
cm wide on the outside of the wall, and opens inside to a width of 40 cm.
The basic construction of the apse is made of roughly cut stones, but the openings and corner stones have been worked with much care. The south window was properly dressed and covered by four juxtaposed stones, forming at their lower part a round vault, getting larger towards the interior opening.
This technique can also be found in the crypt of the St-Fulcran cathedral in Lodève that is believed to have been construted before 975.
In
attempting to date a pre-romanesque church, it is essential to compare the
following two points of interest:
In the opinion of archaeologists and historians, it is the triumphal arch that changes this modest construction into an important building and allows an approximate dating :
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- 22 vault stones, each one 30 cm high and 60 cm thick.
- The top reaches a height of 3.45 metres and is supported by two end-stones, resting partially on the wall and partially on a fragment of the shaft of the column.
South: Shaft of white veined grey marble (60 cm high and 25 cm diameter), no special features.
North: Shaft of white marble (54 cm high and 28 cm diameter) crowned by a ring.
It is only this final detail of the differences between the pieces of marble
columns that suggests the re-use of materials and a more ancient history.
Along with a variety of different objects found in the surrounding area,
this signifies that the chapel was built on a site already in use during
Roman times.
Objects found in the soil and nearby walls include pieces of ‘tegulae’ (pieces of pottery) as well as the discoveries of Doctor Brunel, a respected archaeologist from Bousquet d’Orb. These were coffins made from Roman bricks, two small pieces of pottery and a very beautiful "coloniale de Nimes" (coin) in the stream near the chapel.
In addition, Doctor Marc, a respected historian from Lunas, picked up on a remark made by the abbot Cabrol (a former priest from Lunas): "An old capping of white marble and base of amphorae from the 3rd Century, has been presented to a stone museum in Montpellier."
The presence of ancient relics in and around the pre-Romanesque church is not a surprise. It is simply evidence of a continuity of worship and the different detail that Doctor Brunel noticed in the marble columns probably means they had been previously used in a pagan temple.
According to the archaeologist Juan AINAUD, the overhead triumphal arch of pre-Romanesque churches is a vestige of Visigoth design.
The Saint-Georges chapel is of a type that was built to have a ‘closed’ choir area: this meant that the opening of the triumphal arch is narrower on that side when compared to that of the nave and has two stone blocks supporting the arch.
To a large extent, this style of church was not fully vaulted and often had partly wooden roofs above the wider nave.
With
the narrower span of the choir area, it was easier to build the vaults, as was
the case for the Saint-Georges chapel. The vaulting was largely constructed
during the Romanesque era.