Tutoyer le ciel !
Tours, sanctuaires perchés et chapelles hautes
à l’époque romane
Monday, july 6th
Altitude and verticality in the liturgy and exegesis in the Romanesque age
Alain Rauwel, Université de Bourgogne, CeSor
In the Christian age, religious choices (architectural forms, layout, decoration…) were largely dependent on biblical models. But through what channels were these models known to the clerics, who was responsible for most of the initiatives?
The most constant and effective impregnation was through the liturgy: pericopes, antiphons, prayers, hymns, etc. It would therefore be necessary to examine the presence of the many biblical mountains in medieval liturgy – bearing in mind that the 11th and 12th centuries are also the moment when the landscapes of Palestine become again accessible to pilgrims through the establishment of the Latin states of the East, and thus experience a sacral recharge. The period is also that of the establishment of new festivals, beginning with that of the Transfiguration, which it will be necessary to ask whether it contributed to accentuate the association between idea of God and idea of altitude. Iconography must be solicited as much as texts to take the measure of liturgical interests and disinterest.
In monasteries, the commentators of sacred texts, through their treatises and sermons, develop parallel ideas, which a more elaborate technique makes it possible to make more nuanced. The Cistercians will provide us here with a valuable material, Bernard himself, of course, but even more so Aelred de Rielvaux, who is undoubtedly one of the authors of the Gregorian age to have cultivated the greatest sensitivity to the theme of the mountain. Reading them, we will see that the theme is very polysemous, and even more very ambivalent: if altitude unquestionably brings us closer to God, it can also distance us by evoking pride and vain glory, thus the risk of falling.
This ambivalence probably explains why the note of verticality is not so structuring that one would spontaneously believe it in medieval ecclesial discourse. The height impresses, raises the soul, no doubt, but just as much it frightens – in coherence, here again, with biblical values. The Romance age may have been familiar with the heavens, it did not tame the summits.
Tuesday, July 7th
The romanesque abbey church of the Mont-Saint-Michel
Éliane Vergnolle, professeur honoraire, Université de Besançon
Building a vast church on the tip of a narrow rock was an unprecedented technical challenge. Despite the difficulties of the site, the project, which began in 1023 as part of a campaign to promote pilgrimage to the Archangel, was completed swiftly.
Only a few remains of the 11th-century abbey church survive, having fallen victim to collapses that led to the reconstruction of the north side of the nave in the 12th century, that of the chancel in the 15th century, and the disappearance of the three western bays of the nave in the 18th century. On the other hand, a large part of the network of staircases that served the various levels and facilitated the movement of pilgrims has survived, as has the immense crypt supporting the eastern sections, which remains almost intact. In terms of the elevations, only the transept and the south side of the nave remain, both of which were extensively restored during the second half of the 19th century.
The illumination in the lavish Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry depicting the Romanesque abbey church, the excavations carried out in the 20th century within the present sanctuary, and the surveys conducted prior to the restoration of the transept have made it possible to reconstruct the 11th-century chevet not only in plan but also in elevation: it comprised an ambulatory with a single central chapel, a gallery and a row of high windows. This reconstruction enables us to situate the chevet of Mont-Saint-Michel within the context of the early Romanesque period in Francia occidentalis and beyond, highlighting the iconographic significance of the architectural design.
La Sacra di San Michele
The Sacra di San Michele
The Abbey of San Michele della Chiusa, also known as the “Sacra di San Michele” since the 19th century, in Piedmont, is situated on a high rocky outcrop, Monte Pirchiriano, which rises in the middle of the Susa Valley.
The site was already of strategic importance in Roman and early medieval times, as it controlled the Via Cozia, which linked Italy and Gaul. This was the border between the Merovingian and Lombard kingdoms until, in the year 774, Charlemagne’s army, having breached the weak defences of Chiusa, was able to invade the Po Valley and march towards the kingdom’s capital, Pavia, leading to the fall of the Lombard kingdom.
Towards the end of the 10th century, Giovanni Vincenzo, Bishop of Ravenna, decided to embrace the hermit’s life and retire to the Susa Valley. His successor to the See of Ravenna was Gerbert of Aurillac, later Pope Sylvester II.
Giovanni Vincenzo began his hermit’s life on the nearby Monte Caprasio, but soon his hermitage extended to Monte Pirchiriano. The hagiography of Giovanni Vincenzo explains this move with a miraculous event; in reality, the commanding position of the mountain on which the monastery stands may have been determined by the will of the Alvergnate nobleman Hugon de Montboissier, who, on his return from Rome, decided to build a monastery here, the construction of which began between 983 and 987. Hugon soon asked the monk Adverto, also from Alverna, to become, in 999, the first abbot of the new monastery.
At the same time, the first buildings of the monastery, still identifiable today in the lower levels of the tall structures surrounding the mountain’s summit, expanded to include a church that incorporated the previous hermit’s cells. The construction of the church continued for a long time, until, at the beginning of the 12th century under Abbot Ermengaudo, a new large monastic building was erected to the north and work began on a new church. All that remains of these works today are the ruins of the new monastery, the foundations of the new church, and the so-called Portale dello Zodicao, an unfinished portal created by the sculptor Nicholaus, which features depictions of the signs of the zodiac and the constellations, undoubtedly derived from illustrations in an astronomical manuscript. The church was gradually built during the second half of the 12th century with the help of sculptors and perhaps also masons from Piacenza. The cathedral of that city was, in fact, the architectural model for the new church of the Sacra. Construction, which began with the apse, was soon interrupted and was partly resumed during the 13th century, whilst a section of the 11th-century church remained standing in the western parts. The appearance of the current building is essentially that of the medieval period, although extensive parts have undergone restoration work, carried out mainly at the end of the 19th century, when the church was chosen as the mausoleum of the royal House of Savoy. By that time, the abbey, which had begun to decline in the 14th century, had fallen into disuse and was entrusted to a small group of Rosminian Fathers, who still maintain it today.
Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe: an original sanctuary to protect the holy city of Le Puy.
Xavier Barral i Altet, Institut national d’Histoire de l’Art
Perched on top of a basalt dyke 82 meters high, a chapel dedicated to the archangel Michael, accessible after an ascent of 269 steps arranged in the rock, dominates the sky of the city sanctuary of Le Puy. If today the visitor is impressed by this architectural feat that proudly rivals the cathedral of Le Puy, itself built on a promontory, the Mont Corneille, one can imagine the visual shock that this monument caused among pilgrims arriving at Le Puy in the Middle Ages.
The monument is not only exceptional for its geographical location, it is also because we know the date of its consecration: 961. The 10th century chapel was enlarged in the Romanesque period by a sort of ambulatory intended to cover the entire space available on the rock platform. All aspects of the first medieval art are gathered in this monument, a trilobed building from the pre-Romanesque period and a Romanesque architectural envelope adorned with beautiful capitals, wall paintings, and a tympanum.above the front door with a religious message of high symbolic and interpretative significance.
This building allows the historian of medieval art to ask the main open questions of his discipline: the architectural filiation of a 10th-century sanctuary, the transition from pre-Romanesque to Romanesque, the organization of the construction site and carved decoration, religious iconography and finally the more or less justified intervention of scholars and artists of the 19th century. The small church of Aiguilhe dedicated, like so many high shrines, to Saint Michael, also allows one to reflect on urban topography and on the phenomenon of medieval pilgrimages to the heights, exhausting performative challenge whose reward was at the end of a gradual ascent towards the sky.
Monasteries fortification at Mount Athos (Greece)
Raúl Estangüi Gómez, CSIC, Madrid (Espagne)
The Athos Peninsula, located in the region of Macedonia in northern present-day Greece, has since time immemorial constituted a major centre of Eastern Christian monasticism. The geographical characteristics of this territory made it particularly well suited to the eremitic life. The first great monasteries were established there in the tenth century under the patronage of Byzantine emperors and members of the aristocracy.
However, the isolation of this region — lacking any road connection to the mainland — together with its proximity to the sea, very early necessitated the protection of these monasteries against attacks by brigands, pirates, and even the fleets of hostile states. The fortification of monastic retreat sites thus dates back to the foundation of the first major monasteries in the tenth century. Although their present condition is the result of later interventions dating from the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman period, archaeological research has demonstrated the existence of these defensive structures as early as the central Middle Ages.
The construction of towers and enclosing walls consequently came to define a type of monastery that spread throughout the Byzantine world from this period onward. The monastery thereby became a veritable fortress whose role extended far beyond purely religious functions, also serving to protect the surrounding territory and its populations. The robustness of the defensive systems of the Athonite monasteries explains both their continuity despite numerous political crises and their enduring role as bastions of Orthodox Christianity.
Catalan sanctuaries in height at the time of Oliba
Mart Sureda i Jubany, Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic, Barcelone.
The religious buildings promoted by abbot and bishop Oliba (971-1008-1018-1046), although they have been numerically overestimated by Catalan historiography on «first Romanesque art», certainly represent a rich and creative episode in the first steps of Romanesque architecture in Catalonia. Based on these constructions and others from their geographical and chronological environment, this communication will explore one of the typological innovations of the moment: the location of places of worship at height, not so much in an orographic sense (an aspect in which this practice does not turn out to be very innovative) but above all in the context of the constructive and liturgical programs that emerged in the Catalan counties throughout the first half of the 11th century.
Searching the origins of Mont-Saint-Michel. The contribution of the tacheometric survey .
Heike Hansen, Aix-Marseille-Université, LA3M , Romain Tach
Our communication presents the initial results of a survey and study campaign conducted in January 2026 in one of the buildings located north of the Mont-Saint-Michel abbey. This one, which houses the Salle de l’Aquilon and the Promenoir des moines, has so far been studied only through textual sources and some stylistic arguments. The first elements of archaeological analysis aimed to understand the superposition of levels in this still little-known building. Nevertheless, the study conducted quickly highlighted the interest of its object for the history of the oldest building states preserved in elevation.
The tacheometric survey carried out in situ and at sight has highlighted new elements in the environment of Notre-Dame-sous-Terre, opening up new perspectives on the restitution of the abbey before and during the construction of the 11th century abbey church. The tool also contributes to a better understanding of the complex spatial organization of this monumental ensemble, made up of a conglomerate of rooms that have been redesigned many times and at various levels.
Wednesday, July 8th
Excursion to Sant Pere de Rodes abbey (Empordà, Catalonia).
Thursday, July 9th
The high chapels of the abbey church of Cluny III
Neil Stratford, Membre de l’Institut
A triangle of high chapels dedicated to the archangels was planned from the beginning of the construction work of the large church of Cluny III. A story by Abbé Pierre the Venerable tells us of the Saint-Michel Chapel as a “house of prayer”, where an old monk retired alone for long periods to practice his spiritual exercises like a hermit. Doubtless such high chapels, on the floor in the church, were often conceived as isolated oratories, without communication with the liturgy of the choir, and not only among the Benedictines. Several monuments were equipped with them, but the plan of Cluny III remains unique with an oratory built in each of the two turrets attached to the arms of the transept, and a third erected on the facade.
Excerpts from written sources:
Fuit et alius ut de magno Benedicto legitur ’gratia benedictus et nomine’, cui parem in sanctos studios nescio si umquam viderim…Habebat enim beatus vir pro cella domum orationis in turri altissima atque remotissima in honore sancti Michaelis archangeli consacratam, qui devotioni eius pro cunctis monasterii locis specialius famulabatur. In hac divine theorie totus nocte dieque intentus, mente cuncta mortalia transcendebat, et cum beatissimis angelis interne Conditoris visioni pene iugiter assistebat.” (Petri Cluniacensis Abbatis de Miraculis Libri duo, éd. D. Bouthillier, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis LXXXIII, Turnhout, 1988, p. 58,60-61 (Lib. I, XX- l. 1-3,64-70) )
“domum orationis” is translated below as “oratory”. Peter the Venerable, however, refers to the famous passage of Christ in the Temple where he drives out those who sell and buy: “My house is a house of prayer” (Luke, XIX, 46; cf. Matthew XX1, 13; Mark X1, 17: “My house shall be called a house of prayer”). The Evangelists are based on Isaiah LV1, 7: “Aducam eos in montem sacrum meum, et laetificabo eos in domo orationis meae.”
Vita sancti Maioli, I.9: “Tunc vir dei [abbot Maieul] oratoriolum quod in honore sancti Michaelis ipse trans Ararim [la Saône] reedificaverat et ad quod propter popularem tumultum sese a civitate contulerat, quo secreta quiete pervigil in orationibus divino famulamini manciparetur, adtentius ingressus, pauperum miseratione commotus, cepit dominum enixius exorare.” (éd. D. Iogna-Prat, dans Agni immaculati. Recherches sur les sources hagiographiques relatives à saint Maieul de Cluny (954-994), Paris, 1988, p. 193).
Benoît Dumolin (Cluny, Musée Ochier, ms. 71, p. 40).
“immédiatement au-dessus du portail (le grand portail de la nef de Cluny III) on voit une chapelle dédiée à St Michel, avancée sur l’église en demi [barré] sur la grande nef en manière de cul de lampe sur la largeur de la nef. cette chapelle a dix huit pieds d’enfoncement y compris les 6 pieds qui forment l’étendue du cul de lampe, ou l’on voit l’autel tourné au matin. Les douze autres pieds décrivent l’espace qui forme le massif de l’embrasure de la porte depuis le fonds du vestibule jusques à l’entrée de la grande nef: le cul de lampe commence par une base étroite ornée d’un feuillage gothique; il s’élève en s’élargissant insensiblement jusqu’à sa saillie de six pieds; il est percé sur la grande nef par cinq vitreaux étroits, placés entre des pilastres canelés, soutenus et couronnés par un cordon. La voute du cul de lampe et (sic) un demi cul de four; cette chapelle est aussi ouverte au midi et au nord par un vitraux fenêtre [barré] plus considérable que ceux qui prennent jour sur la nef; et elle a vüe sur le vestibule par celui dont nous avons parlé en décrivant le portail. La voutte de la chapelle de St Michel est partagée en trois bonnets quarrés. On y monte a droite et a gauche par un degré tournant dérobé dans le gros du mur; le degré est large de 3 pieds, composé de soixante et dix marches, hautes de huit pouces; Le degré a droite et a gauche communique sur les voutes des collatéraux et sur les toits. Le degré placé sur la gauche de la chapelle de St Michel est encore élevé jusques a quarante neuf marches et conduit sur les voutes de la grande nef et jusques aux toits.”
Chapels and places of worship on two levels
Christian Sapin, Directeur de recherche honoraire au CNRS
Building and praying at a height can be understood in various ways. The height can result from the use of the natural topographical state of an overhang or a mountain; it can also be the fruit of a construction deliberately raised in height or as we shall see, of a superposition of two places of worship. These high churches, chapels of abbots, chapels of bishops or Saintes-Chapelles, ask the builders to adopt scholarly games for the balance of the masses as for the various accesses. We will question both the origins of this practice of superposition, the gain in sacrality that height seems to generate in the eyes of contemporaries, as well as the voluntary meaning of superposition with respect to certain altars, relics or spaces for the deceased. Some sources attest that these places of worship and veneration, a pledge of piety at certain times, may have been the subject of distinct consecrations.
Elever, révéler
Pierre-Alain Mariaux, Université de Neuchâtel (Suisse)
On October 26, 1225, the abbot Nantelme raised the relics of Saint Maurice until then preserved in the crypt of the 9th century located at the western end of the church, to deposit them in a new shrine of silver and gilded copper that he installed on the main altar of the abbey church, perhaps above a Carolingian tomb. The approach of the abbot of Saint-Maurice is part of a general movement of elevation of relics of the crypts in the choirs, one of the first testimonies is due to the abbot Suger de Saint-Denis. Like his colleague, Nantelme takes care to commemorate his act with an inscription on the new shrine. Celle-ci figure sur l’arête du toit du reliquaire et rappelle l’événement en des termes choisis : agno gracie millesimo duecentesimo vicesimo quinto vii kl novembris relevatum fuit corpus beati mauricii et in hoc philtro reconditum tempore nantelmi huius loci abbatis. The key word in this inscription is the verb relevare, which translates the idea of renewal and renovation. In Saint-Maurice, the “raised” body of Maurice is the result of a double action, both elevation and revelation, which announces the redeployment of real sacred theatres in the liturgical choirs of the Gothic period. It is to identify (and interpret) the antecedents of the Romanesque period that my contribution will be devoted.
First, we will examine the polysemy of the verb. Then, we will consider the devices for staging relics by considering the reliquary itself, then its environment. Various decorative elements, such as inscriptions, lids, grilles, sails, windows, doors, locks, hinges, folds, bases or suspension systems, provide information on the presentation methods of sacred objects and the contexts in which they are inserted. Following Bernhard Siegert, we conceive these elements as operators of hybrid realities, signaling the simultaneous presence of the sacred and the profane, of the visible and the invisible which they articulate together. In other words, they act as “cultural machines” that weave together distinct states and ensure their continuity, thus functioning as visual triggers. As such, the reliquaries show a diversity of staging of the relic articulated around issues of visibility, physical and spiritual, even if the ultimate goal of these clues is essentially to mark the presence of a reality that must remain invisible. The study of reliquaries from this angle thus allows us to bring to light a “rhetoric of revelation”, which also “spills over” into the ecclesial space.
Building bell towers in the Pyrenean valleys
Emmanuel Garland, Docteur en Histoire de l’Art
Immaculada Lorés i Otzet, Université de Lleida (Catalogne, Espagne)
A large number of Romanesque bell towers in the Pyrenees were damaged by earthquakes recorded between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. In many cases, this resulted in their reconstruction or replacement during the Baroque period.
This presentation focuses on the central Pyrenees, encompassing territories on both sides of the mountain range, and addresses several issues considered particularly significant. Firstly, establishing the chronology of the earliest structures helps determine when this architectural typology began to be constructed and how it subsequently spread. It should be noted that this diffusion was not uniform, displaying marked differences between territories to the north and south of the Pyrenees.
Furthermore, the diversity of bell tower typologies allows for a more precise examination of circular towers in particular. The relative chronology of bell towers and their spatial relationship to the church also constitute key aspects of the analysis, since the construction dates of the two structures often do not coincide; in many instances, the bell tower represents a later addition.
Finally, to explain the varying locations of bell towers relative to the church building, it is necessary to consider the functions they served, from liturgical, seigneurial, and territorial standpoints.
The clunisian doyenné de Bezornay at the romanesque period : territory and architecture
Camil Joundy, Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes
From its foundation onward, Cluny Abbey quickly set up a network of dependent houses in the surrounding area, known as doyennés. These sites were centres for managing land and dues, but they also had religious, domestic, and defensive functions. The archaeological study of the doyenné of Bezornay reveals several building phases, especially in the pre-Romanesque and Romanesque periods, which reflect the growth of Cluny’s control over the surrounding territory.
Take the height. For a new approach to the Romanesque churches of Vivarais
through the use of tools from Digital Humanities
Valentine Baconnier
The term digital humanities refers to the transformation of human and social sciences through the progressive integration of tools and methods derived from digital technologies in research practices. Beyond their technical dimension, these tools have profoundly renewed research practices by making it possible to apprehend the objects studied at different scales and thus to reveal dynamics that are difficult to perceive with traditional approaches. In short, they allow you to gain height. This evolution favors more transversal and multidisciplinary approaches, as evidenced by many recent works in history, art history and archaeology.
In this intervention, I will present the methods and tools as well as the first results obtained through their use for the study of the arrangement of decorative elements in the ecclesial space of a corpus of Romanesque buildings in Vivarais (Ardèche). We will mainly discuss the contribution of remote sensing techniques associated with a geo-referenced database integrated into a geographic information system (GIS).
Friday, July 10th
Morning: Saint-Martin du Canigou, visit
The inhabited tower: from seigneurial programmes to urban models
Bastien Lefebvre, Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès
This paper aims to examine the tower as a form of residence, considering its symbolic functions and its implications for the organization of domestic spaces. Although the tower was initially a military structure, associated with defence and the expression of seigneurial power, some examples became true places of residence from the eleventh and twelfth centuries onwards. While this topic is often approached through a distinction between castle keeps and urban tower houses, this paper proposes a more comprehensive perspective to understand how towers were integrated into residential programmes. The presentation will thus compare different models, notably dwellings associated with a tower and those integrated within a tower, in order to examine how these configurations redefine forms of medieval habitation.
The tower and the church of Saint-Amans de Teulet: topography of a Languedoc villa from the 10th century.
Laurent Schneider
Saint-Amans–de-Teulet is an old medieval village that was established as a commune during the Revolution before being attached to that of Pouget in 1801. Today, there are no remains in elevation of this ancient village, its church and its fortifications. But the old villa is gradually being integrated into the monastic domain of Saint-sauveur d’Aniane is documented by a file of relatively significant texts starting from the second half of the 10th century. Various archaeological operations also make possible to follow the major stages in the structuring of the settlement in this terroir. From the foundations of an ancient settlement, during the early Middle Ages a church was built on the top of a hillside, then a tower on a puech and a castrum on another nearby hillside. The organization of the Villa de Teulet adopted a polynuclear configuration before the habitat was restructured in the course of the 12th century near the church of Saint-Amans, which had become a parish and prieural.
The communication will attempt to comment on this long trajectory by trying to establish a dialogue between written sources and archaeological documentation.