Le prieuré de Marnans

Marnans

The monastery appears in the texts in 1164, in a charter of the cartulary of Saint-Barnard de Romans; Augustinian canons occupied it. The community declined quickly, and the archbishop of Vienne obtained in 1288 that the priory be handed over to the hospitallers of Saint Anthony, whose mother house was a few leagues away. Marnans remained Antonine until the dissolution of the order, in 1777. What is striking here is not the wealth, there is none, but an architect's singularity: the columns of the church do not answer one another. At the entrance, the one on the left is octagonal and capped with a crocket capital, the one on the right cylindrical and Corinthian; the asymmetry is repeated on the piers of the nave, on the shafts that frame the high windows, on the windows themselves. The device is exceedingly rare in Romanesque architecture, where the rule is symmetry; what it meant is unknown. The nave, very large for such a place, receives light only from the south wall: the north wall gave on to the cloister, now gone. Of the Wars of Religion, local tradition retains the passage of the baron des Adrets. Nothing else remains, and it is enough.

Wikipédia — Église Saint-Pierre de Marnans ↗

Getting there : By the D 71 from Roybon or Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye; the hamlet is signposted, one parks in front of the church. The building is generally open during the day; a model displayed inside shows the former state of the priory. Of the monastery only one building remains, occupied today by a restaurant. Free access, a few minutes are enough, but one comes back.

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

Ambient sound