Abbey of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe

The Abbaye of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe is located at Saint-Savin in the department of the Vienna. It is classified with the world heritage of UNESCO because it shelters a very beautiful whole of Romance frescos very complete, preserved well and single in Europe.

A little history

The charter of foundation of the abbey having disappeared at the time of the wars of religion in 1598, one does not know with exactitude the date of the foundation.

According to tradition it is with 5th century that two brothers Savin and Cyprien , which fled the Macedonia where they were persecuted because they were Christian, were finally joined on the edges of the Gartempe. They there were martyrisés and decapitated. Savin was buried by priests not far from the current city.

Three hundred years later, the relics of the two martyrs having been found on the spot of their massacre, Badillus, clerk at the court of Charlemagne, decided to found an abbey church there to preserve the invaluable relics at it. Saint Benoît d' Aniane made there observe the rule of saint Benoît and made there install a score of monks. He designated the abbot Eudes Ier, who made build the first Carolingian church at the 9th century.

In 1010 Aumode, countess of Poitou and Aquitaine, made a considerable gift with the abbey, which made it possible to build the current abbey church. Construction and decoration lasted of 1040 with 1090 under the direction of the abbots Odon and Gervais.

At the 13th century, the count Alphonse of Poitiers, brother of Saint-Louis, financed the construction of the conventual buildings.

The Guerre One hundred Year old rang the knell of the prosperity of the monastery which changed several times of hand, (English, French, black Prince).

During the Wars of religion, catholics and Protestants disputed his possession. It was devastated by the Huguenot S in 1562 and 1568 which set fire to the stalls, the organ and the frame. Then laic abbots were named, those were more concerned of empocher the incomes of the abbey than to make maintain the buildings. Towards 1600, one of these abbots made dismantle the buildings, to sell the stones of them! Thus disappeared into large part, the conventual buildings, the cloister, frames with.

Starting from 1611, one of these abbots, Henri de Neuchèze, drove out the monks, and settled in the abbey one of which it made his home. It was driven out by it on order of the king Louis XIII in 1640.

The installation of monk of the Congrégation of Saint-Maur come from the abbey of Nouaillé put an end to this long period destruction.

Between 1640 and 1692, began the restoration of abbey and the construction of new conventual buildings with its affiliation with the congregation of Maur saint. These monks take part to save the walls of the church, but they return it also " moderne" by replacing the furnace bridges and by building contemporary monastic buildings. During one century the abbey found its function first, then burst the French revolution and the conventual buildings became, housing of teacher, gendarmerie, the cloister became the theater of revolutionary festivals.

In 1792, the abbey church became parish church and the last four monks left the abbey.

In 1833, following a visit of the prefect of the department, Mr. Alexis de Jussieu at the time when the mayor made stop a crack of the nave and whitewash the mural, alarm was given by this one near the first general inspector of the historic buildings: Mr. Ludovic Vitet. One then took conscience of the value of Saint-Savin and its safeguard was undertaken. Prosper Mérimée, General inspector of the Historic buildings para to the most urgent restorations as of 1836. In 1840, the church was classified, and of many restorations of masonries were undertaken to put out of water the building and thus to stop the degradation of paintings. Thus thanks to Prosper Mérimée, in 1849, it is regarded as temporarily saved.

More recently in the Sixties, of the restorations were carried out, on the vault of the nave and its paintings.

Other significant events for the abbey one, its classification by UNESCO in 1984 and creation in 1990 of the International Center of Mural Art.

The abbey church

The abbey of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe belongs to maturity in the Romanesque architecture. It was founded for the saints Savin and Cyprien which one is unaware of many things still today. At the 11th century a work is created: the passion of saint Savin and holy Cyprien (holding of the kind epic). This church is known for its murals but it is also important of a point of considering architectural with a nave aiming to the magnificence. It creates a symbiosis between architecture and mural.

In a general way construction is dated from the 11th century. The crypt is former to the tower. Three construction campaigns are found:

the first in half of the 11th century
the two following ones at the end of the 11th century
paintings as for them go back to 1100.

The church is built according to a outline drawing of Latin cross, which was the rule for the Romance churches. The cross is turned towards the east to indicate to faithful raising it, the light and Jerusalem (Holy City). It strikes by the width of its dimensions 76 meters overall length, 77 meters height for the arrow and 31 meters length for the transept. It starts in the west with a bell-tower porch in the direction of the nave. That Ci is long and comprises 9 spans. The transept comes in continuity, length and narrow. The southern arm is shorter than the northern arm because the monastic buildings were coupled there. Directed vaults are united on each arm. The transept crossing is supported by four important solid masses which stop the déambulatoire bedside. The plan of the apse is dictated by the plan of the two crypts, one under the apse, the other under the déambulatoire. The chorus presents a narrow déambulatoire with five radiating chapels. It is reduced by the installation of a staircase. One finds 10 columns in the circumference of the chorus and the apse, corresponding to the 11 spans. The interior is decorated murals dating of which make the celebrity of the place. They were painted directly on the walls by an intermediate process between the fresco and softening. The colors employed are very few, ocher yellow, red blood stone and the green, mixed with the white and the black.

The porch

The frescos were subjected to the bad weather and are partially destroyed, one can nevertheless admire there a Christ in majesty , and episodes of the Apocalypse: Combat of the Archangel and the Animal , the Plague of the grasshoppers … One finds an anomaly, désaxement, because the porch is not perpendicular to the transept. Indeed there remained the old Carolingian nave between two and thus an impossibility at the time of evaluating the distances and the axis from construction. Rez of fitted is a low narthex, nonopenwork sheltering a staircase. It is covered with a barrel vault semicircular arch doubled by two large arcs doublots. The stage is a room which makes the double height of rez of fitted. This room presents the same arched cover. A large window opens on the nave.

The platform

It is located above the porch to which it is connected by a rather narrow staircase. Paintings are degraded also enough there because subjected to the bad weather the windows having deprived of stained glasses until the 19th century. A painting represents a Deposition , the others of the portraits of saints, apostles, and bishops.

The nave

It is the showpiece of this unit, it is 42 meters long on 17 meters broad and 17 meters height, it is the gathering place of the faithful ones. In the beginning, the nave was envisaged arched. However the technique of construction is less neat than for the bedside. It is downwards compared to the narthex. The ground is being inclined, therefore impression of rise until the chorus.

The nave is characterized by its columns a height of 15 Mr. They go up to the vault and supports directly it. It misses the second level of high windows. The central vessel is not enlightened directly but indirectly by the collateral ones. They are besides almost on the level of the nave. The columns are painted in tons soft rosy and pastel which take part in environment.

The vault of the central vessel is in central cradle and covers a surface of 412 m ². It is entirely painted, shouldered by the groined vaults of the collateral ones. These vaults rest at the same time on the columns and the half columns imbedded in the wall.

Difference between the three first spans and the six following ones: They are excentric, the ones in the axis of the porch, the others in the axis of the bedside. One sees the transition with the pillars which are more important. The arcs doublots in the collateral ones indicate the significant part of the building. The reinforcements appear on the level of the walls of the collateral ones. The first part is made up of vault with arcs doublots reinforcements whereas the second part is in barrel vault semicircular arch. The first supports are made up piles which associate four columns. One finds then only columns cylindrical. There is then a better penetration of the light in the second part of the nave. One removed the doublots to allow to better see paintings. One finds also a difference of capitals: in the first part they are simple with smooth baskets while in the second part they are complicated and present vegetable reasons.

The vault is decorated with paintings whose characters measure nearly 2 meters. Paintings represent scenes of the Genèse and Exode . It are read as a large book. It is divided in its length by a large plank, two registers spread each with dimensions one of this plank. One can see scenes there evoking the creation those of the stars, then that of the men, then the original sin . Other scenes evoke the history of Caïn and Abel. Then one recognizes Enoch the arms towards the sky evoking God, God announcing the flood with Noah and inviting it to build the Arch. Noah's Ark (photo) is one of the most famous scenes of this unit, It has a pace of drakkar, without oars, nor veils. At the exit of the Arch God blesses the family of Noah, other paintings represent the vine, the wine and the intoxication of Noah. thumb|Detail of the vault of Saint-Savin: ''Abraham'' Another scene tells the construction of the tower of Babel, then the vocation of Abraham, and the separation of Abraham and Loth (photo).

Joseph is also represented but it is not a question of the father of Christ but great-grandson of Abraham, sold by his brothers.

Other scenes evoke the history of Brace and the Hebrew people: Crossed Red Sea , the Hebrew people blesses by God after the crossing , Moïse receiving from God the Tables of the Law . The capitals all of the nave are different, they are also painted, decorated heads of lion or sheets of acanthus. The crypts, place of conservation of the relics of the Savin Saints and Cyprien, are also decorated murals which tell the lives of the two saints and the account of their martyrdom. The chorus was covered with a sowing of stars at the 19th century, it is not in hemicycle as with accustomed, but polygonal. It is decorated radiating chapels which shelter altar stones going back to 1050. The vaults of the northern arm are dedicated to the archangels, those of the southern arm to the apostles. North in the south in the absidioles, the vaults are dedicated to the virgins, to the martyrs, to Marin saint.

The bedside

One finds a transept narrow with a crossing covered by a frame. The chorus is elevated of one meter because a crypt in lower part is found. It has several levels:

of the columns with capitals supporting of the narrow arcs
windows of which a part was walled. They allow a direct lighting of the apse

The déambulatoire is narrow with a vault with penetration divided into 11 spans.

Crypts

One is deeper under the vault of axis for Martin saint. It has a short nave arched in cradle. The second crypt is located under the apse and glaze of paintings for the saints Savin and Cyprien. They are sheltered by a flattened barrel vault. At the bottom one finds a niche containing a furnace bridge, an opening to the east communicating with the déambulatoire. All the relics disappeared.

External bonds

More on the abbey: Romanesque art

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