Tilleul de la côte Sainte-Hélène

Saint-Pierre-es-Champs

At the top of the Côte Sainte-Hélène, some two hundred metres above sea level over Saint-Pierre-es-Champs, a fourteen-metre small-leaved lime with a trunk five and a half metres round overlooks the Pays de Bray and the valley of the Epte. The hill was frequented from Antiquity and bore, from the 11th century, two successive chapels, the last dedicated to Saint Helena, where pilgrimages and processions were held. At the end of the 17th century a hermit from La Feuillie, Jean Sacy, lived there. On 20 January 1700, according to an article in actu.fr (2021), two Benedictines from Saint-Germer-de-Fly found him dead, tortured by four robbers who were never arrested; the parish priest Levasseur recorded the tragedy in the parish register and the hermit was buried in the chapel four days later. Without a successor, the chapel was abandoned. Tradition holds that the lime was planted on its site: after the murder according to some, after the demolition of the building during the Revolution according to another notice of the A.R.B.R.E.S. association; its age ranges from 210 to over 400 years according to the sources, the latter being incompatible with both traditions. Excavations carried out in 1988 and 1989 uncovered thirteen graves, including, according to actu.fr, that of the hermit. A stele now recalls his martyrdom and, since 2001, a procession has climbed every year, usually on the first Saturday of May, to the old tree, which holds the Arbre remarquable de France label.

Mairie de Saint-Pierre-ès-Champs — La côte Sainte-Hélène ↗

Getting there : At the top of the Côte Sainte-Hélène, reached on foot from the village by the paths of the nature reserve; the site is open all year round (Tourisme Hauts-de-France). The hermit's stele and the remains of the chapel are a few steps from the tree. Annual procession, usually on the first Saturday of May.

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

Ambient sound