The church of Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell (Catalan: Sant Nazari de Barbadell) is a disused Romanesque and pre-Romanesque Catholic church in Bouleternère, in the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales.
Probably built before the year 1000, the church of Saint-Nazari developed with the village of Barbadell from the 11th to the 13th centuries, of which it was the parish church. In the 14th century, for reasons that are unclear (floods, wars, plague or a combination of several of these factors), Barbadell suffered severe depopulation, eventually disappearing completely in the course of the 16th century. The church of Saint-Nazaire, now an isolated chapel, was not forgotten by the people of Bouleternère, who continued to make donations to it in their wills.
In the 18th century, a succession of hermits took up residence at Saint-Nazaire, maintaining the church and keeping it in worship, thus saving it from the abandonment experienced by many rural churches at the time of the French Revolution. However, this abandonment was only delayed: in the course of the 19th century, the old church changed ownership several times, and was then divided between several properties. It was transformed into a building for agricultural use, and then into a dwelling, which seriously deteriorated it.
The old church has been completely renovated since 1997, when the three owners founded a conservation association to which they bequeathed the building.
In the 21st century, the church regained its medieval appearance. It comprises a rectangular nave oriented west-east, extended by a flat apse whose axis is slightly offset to the south. The walls of the nave are reinforced with double arches and formets supporting a barrel vault. The building is topped by a bell-wall and covered with a slate roof. Traces of 18th-century painted decoration remain on the interior walls.
The church of Saint-Nazaire is surrounded by low walls and ancient canals, showing that the inhabitants of Barbadell have had to battle floods and high water from the river Boulès, on the banks of which this building is built, many times over the centuries.
Situation The Canigou massif is the most easterly of the Pyrenean mountain ranges, rising above 2,000 m in altitude. Located in the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales, it separates the natural and historic Catalan regions of Vallespir to the south and Conflent to the north. Between Canigou and the Mediterranean Sea lies the Aspres massif, a Pyrenean foothill of hills covered with Mediterranean forest, and the Roussillon plain. This region is subject to a Mediterranean climate, hot and dry in summer, but sometimes marked by very heavy rainfall.
A river born in the Canigou massif, the Boulès crosses the Aspres from south to north through steep gorges before flowing into the Têt river in Conflent. Like other rivers in the region, the Boulès has a highly irregular flow pattern, subject to major floods that can be devastating.
The church of Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell stands on the banks of the Boulès, where the gorges widen to form a small plain surrounded by steep but low-lying mountains. The building is built on an alluvial fan of a stream called ravin de Saint-Nazaire, which flows into the Boulès a few meters from the church,Carozza et al. 2009. at an altitude of 200 m. The church is part of the French commune of Bouleternère, in the Pyrénées-Orientales department.
The chapel can be reached from Bouleternère via the D618 departmental road, which winds along the Boulès valley and crosses the Aspres from one side to the other, linking the Conflent with the Vallespir (at Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda). This route also leads to the Serrabone priory, another Romanesque church located a few kilometers south of the Barbadell church. The route from the village capital to the church of Saint-Nazaire is around 1.5 km long.
Toponymy
Barbadell is a Catalan name which, according to Lluís Basseda, derives from the Latin Barbatellus, a diminutive of Barbatus. Barbatus is undoubtedly the name of the owner of a villa, a medieval agricultural property located in this area. This name was later given to a village, now disappeared, and to the parish church of this village, which is now the church of Saint-Nazaire.
Other origins have been suggested: the Catalan name barbada, which can refer to sandy ground surrounded by rocks, or the Catalan adjective barbat, meaning a plant that has taken root. Jean Reynal also points out that barbadell is one of the Catalan names for Viorne lantane (Viburnum Lantana).
Quoi qu'il en soit, on retrouve une famille nommée Barbadell dans le village voisin de Glorianes et à Sofrunys (village maintenant intégré à la commune de Glorianes) dès le début du xive siècle, dans deux actes, pour un mariage en 1319 et une vente de domaine agricole en 1342.
En catalan, le double l est mouillé.
Saint-Nazaire (Catalan: Sant Nazari) comes from a Hebrew nickname meaning "the Nazarene", a person from Nazareth, like Jesus Christ.
The church owes its name to Nazarius of Milan, a Roman Christian of the 1st century. He went to Gaul to preach the new religion, and was persecuted by the authorities for trying to spread his faith. According to Christian tradition, he was sentenced to drowning, from which he miraculously escaped, before ending up beheaded, along with his companions Celsus, Gervasius and Protasius, all of whom later became Catholic saints.
The building is referred to as "Chapelle St-Nazaire" or "Sant Nazari" on IGN maps.
History
Construction and parish Although the chapel's layout and some of its architectural features are typical of pre-Romanesque rural churches in Catalonia, i.e. from the ninth or tenth century, the date of construction is not known with certainty. Originally, the church was covered by a roof frame, which was replaced by a vault at an undated period, possibly the 11th century. The present wall-belfry may have been built at the same time as the vault.
Saint-Nazaire is first mentioned on October 25, 1151, in the act of consecration of the church of Sainte-Marie de Serrabone, of which it is a dependency, under the name "Ecclesia de Barbadello", with no mention of the church's dedication to any particular saint. Other churches mentioned in this text are those of Arsus, Villela, Joch and Marynians. This text is also the first known mention of the toponym Barbadell, already in its present form.
A text from 1265 refers to the church as a parish in the village of Barbadell ("parrochia Sancti Nazarii de Barbadello"). This is the first known mention of the church's dedication to Saint Nazaire.
From 1260, and for a century afterwards, a relatively large number of documents attest to the fact that Bouleternère residents bequeathed money in their wills to the priest in charge of the Barbadell church.
Depopulation In 1346, Pope Clement VI issued a bull stating that the church of Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell had been left without care ("sine cura") and appointed a priest to look after it.
The parish church status seems to have been lost shortly afterwards: in 1358, Saint-Nazaire is named as a simple chapel, and in 1389 (or 1390), the church is an "Ecclesia ruralis" (rural church, located in the countryside).
The parish of Barbadell was never able to develop and remained an area of dispersed rural settlement, sparsely populated and therefore fragile. There are three reasons why it disappeared in the middle of the 14th century rather than at any other time. Firstly, flooding, which may have become more frequent during this period. Secondly, wars. The county of Roussillon was the object of wars between the kingdoms of Aragon and Majorca, particularly when, in 1344, the Aragonese king Peter the Ceremonious took Roussillon from James III of Majorca. In 1365, the future Constable of France Bertrand Du Guesclin sent the "grandes compagnies" (mercenaries who, in times of peace, plunder the regions they found themselves in) to take part in the Spanish wars. They passed through the Roussillon region, where they pillaged numerous villages, including the Serrabonne priory, which was partly destroyed. Finally, the plague, which reached Perpignan in 1348, claimed many victims in Roussillon as in the rest of Europe. Although no text mentions these ravages specifically in Barbadell, there is no doubt that the village suffered their consequences more or less directly.
Despite this, Saint-Nazaire continued to be a place of worship, receiving donations from Bouleternère villagers until at least 1413. The prior of Serrabonne is described as "capellano" (chaplain, priest officiating in a chapel) of Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell in a text from 1424. In 1529, a deed confirms Serrabonne's possession of Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell, which loses its priory status in 1592. In 1611, the churches of Serrabonne (now a parish) and Barbadell came under the authority of the bishopric of Solsona, located south of the Pyrenees. The distance from Barbadell to Solsona by modern road is over 160 km.Distance given by Google Maps.
Time for hermits
During the 17th century, the village of Barbadell was completely abandoned. The church of Saint-Nazaire was not forgotten by the inhabitants of Bouleternère, and became a hermitage.
The fate of Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell is shared by many isolated rural churches and former parish churches in deserted villages in the province of Roussillon. Victims of relative abandonment, they often became hermitages in the course of the 17th century. A work published in 1688 lists forty-four hermitages in the province, but Barbadell is not mentioned.
The first hermit attested at Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell, in 1734, was Pere Vaquer. He died on April 28, 1739 and is buried in the Barbadell chapel. Two other hermits are mentioned in texts: Isidore Bonacasa on August 8, 1753 and in 1756 (died October 19, 1779) and Joseph Escande in 1797.
The originality of the Barbadell hermitage lies in its location and relative comfort: hermitages in the Roussillon region are usually found in abandoned, uninhabited and drought-prone areas. Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell benefits from fertile soil and lies close to a stream in a valley sheltered from the Tramontane wind. Apart from this characteristic, the hermit of Barbadell leads the same life as his counterparts in Roussillon: he cultivates the land around the church to feed himself, attends religious services in Bouleternère, during which he sometimes helps the priest. In fine weather, he visits the inhabitants of Bouleternère and surrounding farms to collect money, reciting prayers he knows by heart (hermits are generally illiterate). He is also in charge of maintaining the chapel, near which he has a small lodging. The hermit organizes the aplec (traditional Catalan religious festival) for the feast of Saint Nazaire, on July 28.
Thus, despite the loss of its status as a parish seat and the desertification of its territory, the chapel of Saint-Nazaire de Barbadell lives on. Religious services are still held there on July 28, the chapel is regularly maintained and, around 1760, the interior was repainted, with decorations painted using the tempera technique.