Santiago de Compostela
Part 4. The Local Paths to Rocamadour
‘ La Lanterne des Morts: Pile creuse en pierre terminée à son sommet par un petit pavillon ajouré, percée à sa base d’une petite porte, et destinée à signaler au loin, la nuit, la présence d’un établissement religieux, d’un cimetière. Peut-être doit-on chercher dans ces édifices une tradition antique de la Gaule celtique.’1
Part of the transformation of medieval religious devotion, the growth of pilgrimage to Rome, Canterbury, Cologne, Compostele and the Holy Land, is reflected in the romance tradition. The pilgrimage included thousands of shrines to visit, sites to venerate the relicts of saints or drink miracle-working waters.2
This post is the continuation of: Santiago de Compostela. Part 4. Part 4. Chanson de Roland
Two local paths take the pilgrim from the major Path of Vézelay (GR 654) to Rocamadour . The branch-off at Limoges passes through Saint Léonard de Noblat and some of the most beautiful villages of France; Aubazine, Collonges la Rouge and Martel. At Rocamadour a path from the Auvergne merges and the pilgrim can continue to walk the second local path to rejoin the Path of Vézelay at Bergerac. Or continue-on south and pick up the Path of Puy en Velay (GR 65) in Cahors. In the another of the most beautiful villages, St Robert, a panel explains how it ones was a relay (towards Terrasson), but these days non of the modern incarnations of the paths pass anywhere near.
The first path between Limoges and Cahors probably followed the remnants of the Roman road that passed in-between today's paths via Hautefort (old Roman camp). A certain doctor Trassagnac spend much time puzzling together the Roman roads of the Dordogne department and found one crossed the Auvezere by a wooden bridge at Cubas. A resting stop was provided to pilgrims by a monastery that controlled the bridge. An archaic Lanterne des Morts was (probably) built in the 11th century. At night a light was placed in the column, which was visible from afar, to guide the wandering, lost or exhausted traveler. In 1345 the prioress burned down but the Lanterne des Morts survives till this day.3 Trassagnac also refers to Viollet-Le-Duc’s dictionary :
‘… a very ancient tradition, modified by Christianity. They are mainly found in cemeteries (or religious establishment) along major roads or highly frequented places. These lanterns, Viollet-le-Duc tells us, were built in the Middle Ages, but they existed in the Bas-Empire, because they are mentioned, among others, at the battle of Vouillé between Clovis and Alaric, in 507.’4
After the turn of the milenium the Aquitaine developed a diversity of architectural styles often referred to as regional schools; Périgourdine, Auvergnate, Poitevine or Provençale.5 The nave covert with a line of domes, great compositions on the tympana, columns with monsters and animals, lanternes des morts. Pilgrimage churches became a meeting place for passers through, and depository of memories. The formation of ‘Plantagenets (Angevin) empire’ restored the economy, monastic life, exchanges, roads and bridges.6
Romanesque architecture
At favorable locations on major pilgrimage routes shrines, benefited from pilgrims offerings, were rebuild to accommodate pilgrims. The Cathedral of Saint-Martin in Tours (1003), was designed with an ambulatory (meaning a place to walk) allowing the crowd to parade around the holy relics and became the archetype for pilgrimage churches. The ambulatories, the hallways and aisles made circulation around the choir possible to visit the radiating chapels projecting from the ambulatory. A relatively small number survive in their eleventh and twelfth century form or elements intact.
The style, known as the Romanesque, incorporated and developed features common to ancient Roman architecture. The Romanesque is distinguished by relatively massive masonry construction, the use of rounded arches, heavy walls with limited number of windows, sometimes resulting in a fortress like quality. Rounded arches frame the portals in Romanesque churches with half circles of relief sculpture forming the tympana depicting vivid scenes like the Last Judgement. The exterior decorations are otherwise relatively simple. Romanesque architecture will be explored later, here are just two striking examples linked to the Compostela path (and too far from Terrasson to be included in a day trip).
Saint Léonard de Noblat
The 6th century saw young noble men flee the life of the court and withdrawn to a forest. And later, villages, monasteries or towns developed around their tombs, much like St Sour, St Amand and St Cyprien around Terrasson. Leonard created an agricultural colony for the redemption of prisoners, after he was granted the property of Noblat on curing King of Austrasia’s (Theodebert) wife.
After his death in 559, devotion to the ‘protector of captives’ became widespread in France, Britain, Belgium, Italy and Germany. Because of its location on one of the main paths to Compostela, the small Limousin sanctuary of Saint Léonard de Noblat grew fast. Attracting thanksgiving pilgrims to the tomb of St Leonard after they had invoked him, inprisoned from their dungeons, to obtain their liberation.
The high choir, slender columns, a wide ambulatory, and seven chapels ornamented by arcature (small decorative real or blind arcades) and ‘Limousine windows’ make it a typical Pilgrimage Church. The octagonal Lantern of the Dead tower is unfinished. ‘Flying buttresses at the summit of the choir were added in the 17th century. Combining monumentality and a springing silhouette, the laternal bell-tower is the finest example of Limousine Romanesque.’7
Moissac
The fame of Moissac rests, above all, on its tympanum, described as ‘the most extraordinary creation of Romanesque art’. It references the Apocalypse, I quote:
‘It is the vision of Christ in Judgement, His right hand raised, His left resting on the Book of Life, ...
Christ, with deliberate domination, is seated on a sumptuous throne with an extraordinary skill of compactness and perspective assuring the ease and stability of the pose. He is truly God in Majesty. His clothing is imperial with embroidered collar, its orphreys, the crown enriched with enamel, the fleurettes of of the halo and the stars which literally scintillate.
In His entourage are, first, the four beasts, symbols of the evangelists, all in ecstatic postures: the angels in bowed silhouette, presenting the book with graceful poise; the sinewy eagle with ruffed plumage and dilated beak; the lion and bull seeming to roar and below with admiration, their necks outstretched and arched at the knees of God.
Arranged fan-wise around this God in Majesty are two cherubim; then the court of the twenty-four old men.’8
Rocamadour
Wether you walk for an hour (4.5km) from the train-station or drive by car, the baren landscape of the Quercy-cause surrounding the secluded sanctuary in its gorge is part of the experience. People came from all over Europe to climb the 197 steps of the staircase carved into the side of the rock on their bare knees, today hordes of tourists have difficulty making it up (so an escalator is available). The visiting experience is best in winter when ‘you will not find a place open in hours around’, as the summertime Disneylandisch experience might throw you off (though it’s very easy to find something the eat).
The buildings of Rocamadour are built into the side of a cliff of 120 meters high with some great viewpoints (1 and 7). Walking from the lower town (2, 3, 4 and 5) to the castle, you pass through the monastery half-way up the cliff including small chapels the pilgrimage church of Notre Dame. A small Benedictine community continues to occupy the small 12th century church of Saint-Michel. The pilgrimage church opens onto a terrace where there is a broken sword said to be a fragment of Durandal, once wielded by the Charlemagne's paladin hero Roland (6).
The interior walls of the church of St Sauveur are covered, with paintings and inscriptions recalling the pilgrimages of celebrated persons. The subterranean church of St Amadour (1166) extends beneath St Sauveur and contains relics of the saint. On the summit of the cliff stands the château built in the Middle Ages to defend the sanctuaries.
Rocamadour is listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO as part of the St. James’ Way pilgrimage route. Next to the tourism office you find the entrance to the Merveilles cave (8) with natural rock formations and 20.000 years old paintings depicting human hands, horses and bear.
‘La Lanterne des Morts (Lantern of the Dead): Hollow stone pilar ending at its top with a small openwork pavilion, pierced at its base with a small door, and intended to signal in the distance, at night, the presence of a religious establishment, a cemetery. Perhaps we should look for an ancient tradition from Celtic Gaul in these buildings.’
Epigraph quoting Viollet Le Duc E., Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française. In: Pradeau C., 2010. La Grande Sauvagerie. Éditions Verdier. ISBN 978 2 86432 601 4
Jordan W.C., 2002 (2001). Europe in the High Middle Ages. Allen Lane, Penguin Books. ISBN 978 0 140 16664 4
Galet J-L., 1967. L’Auvézère et ses chateaux. Pierre Fanlac.
Trassagnac L., 1936. Le réseau d'Agrippa dans le département de la Dordogne. In :Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique du Périgord (BSHAP), 1937. As accessed through : https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k121806p?rk=21459;2
Marrou H-I., 1971. Les troubadours. Éditions du Seuil, Points Histoire. ISBN 2 02 000650 2
Favier J., 2004. Les Plantagenêts, Origines et destin d’un empire Xie-XIVe siècle. Éditions Tallandier, Collection Texto Le goût de l’histoire. ISBN 979-10-210-0881-6
Maury J., Gauthier M-H. S. et Porcher J., 1974. 2e édition. Limousin Roman. Zodiaque, La nuit des temps. ISBN 9782723491624
Vidal M., Maury J. et Porcher J., 1979. 3e édition. Quercy Roman. Zodiaque, La nuit des temps. ISBN 978-2736901431