Chapelle des moines
I have two projects on the go at the moment. One is collecting old street scenes of Cormatin and comparing them to present day photos taken from exactly the same spot as a hundred years ago. I’ll show you the results sometime when things are quiet.
The second project is following the Route of the Romanesque Churches. These were built in the villages around Cluny at the same time as the Abbey was reconstructed but, unlike the Abbey, these have remained intact since the early 12th century. The route loops from Cluny via Cormatin and Malay as far as St Gengoux, then returns by way of Brancion and Berzé. It takes in about thirty villages each with its Romanesque church.
We decided to start at the southernmost point about 10km southeast of Cluny. The road takes you past Berzé-le-Châtel which is a most impressive chateau set high on a rock, a little like Edinburgh Castle. Further down the hill is Berzé-la-Ville where you will find the Chapelle des moines.
The Chapelle des moines is important for its unique Cluny paintings. It was built by Abbot Hugh (1049-1109) who was responsible for overseeing the reconstruction of Cluny Abbey. It was to provide a quiet place for his retirement. Originally the interior walls of Romanesque churches were covered in frescos and it was only much later with the suppression of the monasteries that they were plastered over and the paintings lost. But at Berzé in 1887 well preserved frescos were found under a layer of limewash.
In the chapel the paintings are in three sections. In the middle is a huge painting of Christ and the disciples. He is giving a blessing to Paul, and to Peter he is giving a scroll signifying the law. On the left of this is a scene portraying the martydom of St Blaise, and on the other that of St Vincent. These frescos are important in that they were painted by the same artists that would have decorated the Abbey at Cluny which was largely destroyed at the beginning of the19th century. They show Italo-Byzantine influences and demonstrate the close links that the abbots of Cluny maintained with Rome and Monte Cassino, the source of the Benedictine Order, and thus with the Byzantine Empire.
Anyway, enough history for now. Walk up to the viewing point on the Roche Cloche behind Berzé and you will be able to see miles across to the Roche de Solutré and watch the TGVs like tiny silver beetles speeding north to Paris.
Berzé is well worth a visit. Next time we will continue further along the Route by visiting Sologny and Ste-Cécile which are just south of Cluny.
