The church of Chiroubles
Heritage
Vineyard
" Grille Midi"
Map from Chiroubles
St-Germain
Church
St-Roch
Chapel
Victor Pulliat
Emile Cheysson
In olden days
Landscape and huts
Terrace of Chiroubles
Pictures from Chiroubles

 

      The present church was built in 1838, superseding to an old romanesque edifice built during XIII th century.

 

The entire building measures 13.75 m wide and its length is exactly 27.50 m.

The Saint-Germain Church consists of 3 naves separated by capitals columns whose stones come from quarries close to Macon. Two of these columns are monolithic (one piece).

The church is eastern-west oriented; The main facade (west) is decorated with two triangular pediments that are accessed at the bell tower by a small stone staircase, very stiff and narrow, located to the right of the entrance.

It was even envisaged to raise the old bell tower in order to harmonize it on the scale and style of the new building but to avoid a dissymmetry effect, the municipality decided the demolition and the reconstruction of the bell tower focused on the rest of the building and in front of the main door.

Plans were established by the architect Duret (Lyon) which drew the bell tower and its dome. The church finally cost 26,400 francs at the time, funded for half by subscription of the inhabitants (700 at the time), the rest coming from "la Fabrique" (parish institution), and subsidies from the government of Louis Philippe.

The scheduling of the main facade is resolutely neoclassical, typical of this first half of the 19th century where architecture wants to relate to the monuments of classical Greece. From the same inspiration and the same era is the courthouse in Lyon, built between 1835 and 1847.

 
St Roch's Chapel
Heritage
Vineyard
" Grille Midi"
Map from Chiroubles
St-Germain
Church
St-Roch
Chapel
Victor Pulliat
In olden days
Landscapes and huts
Pictures from Chiroubles
In 1629, in front of the plague which ravaged the village, the inhabitants of Chiroubles decided the foundation of a chapel. The priest, messire Mestrat, having withdrawn to the hamlet "Du Fêtre", the contagion having forced him to abandon his presbytery, he requires the inhabitants of the villages of "Javernand", "Fêtre" and "Saignes" to build a chapel at the place called "Javernand ".
 
D'après : - Archives et antiquités par l'Abbé Vachet, missionnaire de la Maison des Chartreux de Lyon - 1899 - Chiroubles avant 1789 - Village et paroisse en Beaujolais, archiprêtré de Vauxrenard, diocèse de Lyon : Mr le Prévôt de St Pierre de Macon nommé à la cure.
"Le jour et fêté l'Assomption et y célébra le Sainte Messe et incontinent après, la maladie cessa au lieu-dit Chiroubles". La chapelle avait été édifiée par Pierre Depardon et Philibert Dufestre, maçon et charpentier de Chiroubles, les habitants ayant fourni les matériaux et leur ayant donné 16 livres pour leurs journées. Les habitants étaient Benoît Durand dit " Desvignes ", Vincent Depardon consort, Antoine Bailly, Catherine Durand dit " Dufestre ", Catherine fille de feu Etienne Pertinant, Pierre Ducoté, Claude Teillard, François Durand, Claude Gautier dit " Bailly ", Vincent Crotte, Claude Durand dit " Dufestre " et Benoît Bernachon, habitants aux dits villages de Javernand, des Saignes, et Dufêtre. Procès verbal établi le 23 décembre 1629 par Blondel, notaire royal paraphé par Benoît Dupont de Chiroubles et Antoine Desvignes, laboureur de Villié, témoin.
In 1791 the chapel was put up for sale as a national property. After several petitions of descendants of the owners, arguing that no prebend (income attached to an ecclesiastical title) ecclesiastical being attached to it, the Directory, derogating its decree of April 23, and stops the sale:
" que la chapelle St Roch, située au lieu de Javernand, paroisse de Chiroubles est et demeure distraite en faveur des nommés dans l'article du 23 décembre 1629, ou à leurs ayants-droits, pour par eux et en jouir comme chose leur appartenant ; en conséquence la chapelle ne sera pas comprise dans la vente des Biens nationaux de ce département. A l'effet de quoi, elle sera rayée de tout tableau où elle aurait pu être portée. Fait en directoire à Lyon le 4 juin 1792, l'an IV de la Liberté. Signé Roucher, Janson / président Tariot, Lecour.
If the old altar was made of wood, the current one is the old altar of the old church, put in this chapel to its demolition. The tin was added around 1792, the date appearing on the beam of the pinnacle.
Update 23/08/2003