Chapelle Saint-Adrien

Saint-Barthélemy

Built at the end of the 15th century by the powerful Rohan family, whose arms adorn the east end and the south door, the chapel of Saint-Adrien at Saint-Barthélemy stands on a site which local tradition holds to have been sacred since antiquity: two springs still well up today inside the building itself, in the choir and the transept, a probable sign of an ancient water cult later Christianised. A persistent legend has it that the Templars occupied the place before the present chapel was built — nothing proves this historically, but the carved rood screen depicts, a rare thing, the twelve apostles dressed as Knights Templar, keeping the tale alive in the very stone. The painted ceiling of the choir, completed around 1565, tells in colour the martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia, the protector invoked locally. Every first Sunday of September, a pardon continues to gather the parishioners around the neighbouring devotional fountain, crowned with a cross. Listed as a monument historique in 1932, the chapel has kept part of its stained glass and its carved roof timbers despite the removal of some windows in 1937. Today, in summer, it hosts contemporary art exhibitions that contrast with its medieval atmosphere, perpetuating the site's vocation as a gathering place down the centuries.

Getting there : Free access to the surroundings; guided tours organised in summer by the Amis de la chapelle Saint-Adrien association, contemporary art exhibitions in season.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound