Éauze Cathedral: Former Cathedral of Saint Luperc
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page12 sections
History
Éauze Cathedral is a former Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to Saint Luperc in Éauze, France. It belongs to the history of Elusa, the ancient city that probably became the metropolitan seat of Novempopulania, a late Roman administrative region in southwestern Gaul, during the third century. The church therefore reflects the development of one of the early Christian centres of the region, although the location of the first cathedral remains debated.
Elusa and the early Christian community
The earliest secure reference to the bishopric dates from 314, when Bishop Mammertimus was mentioned at the Council of Arles. Held during the Roman Empire, this council addressed disciplinary and doctrinal matters among western Christian communities. Elusa had already been an important military and administrative centre, and earlier religious life included the cults of Mithras, Cybele, and Sol Invictus, the Roman “Unconquered Sun” associated especially with the imperial and military world.
Christian worship became established early in the city. A stele found in 1880 during railway-station works was dedicated to Saint Luperc by Quietus, a Roman curator, an official with civic administrative or supervisory duties. Its late lettering probably dates it to the fifth century, making it the oldest known evidence of the cult of Saint Luperc at Eauze. The stele is now preserved at the Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
The first cathedral may have stood in several different locations proposed around ancient Elusa. Possibilities include a site over the city’s baths, a position within the fortifications above the Gélise, the area near the later rural church of Notre-Dame de Cieutat, or the place where the Saint Luperc stele was discovered. An inscription found at the site appears to indicate that Eauze was a Roman colony as early as the first or second century. The town developed from the first century and prospered particularly in the third, while the villa of ancient Elusa stood about one kilometre east of the present town.
A church dedicated to Saint Peter was probably built by the first bishops of Elusa on a hill outside the ancient city walls, perhaps as early as the fourth century. It probably served as a necropolis and may have replaced an earlier pagan cult site. This church formed the basis for the later religious foundation on the hill.
The Benedictine monastery and priory
After 960, the church on the hill was followed by a Benedictine monastery founded by Odon or Bernard-Othon, count of Fezensac. Benedictine communities followed the rule and traditions associated with Saint Benedict. The foundation was initially dedicated to Saints Gervasius and Protasius, then to Saint Luperc in the eleventh century, when the saint’s relics were transferred there. The written life of Saint Luperc was produced in the tenth century, around the time the monastery was founded.
In 1088 the monastery was united with Cluny, the influential medieval Benedictine abbey whose network included affiliated houses, and became a Benedictine priory. It remained a priory until the French Revolution. The metropolitan title of Elusa, however, had already disappeared from the city’s ecclesiastical structure. Following invasions and destruction probably caused by Vikings around 864, Pope John VIII transferred the metropolitan title to Airardus, bishop of Auch, in a letter dated 13 June 879. The archbishop of Auch restored the cathedral title at Eauze in 1865.
The fifteenth-century cathedral
The present church was commissioned by Jean Marre, who became prior of Eauze in 1463. Construction began during the 1460s and was completed around 1500. Before taking the bishopric of Condom in 1497, Jean Marre had been a monk of Simorre Abbey, a visitor of his order for Gascony, an official of the Archdiocese of Auch, and a vicar general to Jean de Lescun and later to the cardinal of Amboise at Albi. He returned to Auch with Archbishop Jean de la Trémoille before becoming bishop.
The cathedral suffered destruction in 1569. The buildings of the Benedictine priory were largely rebuilt in 1732, and the surviving cloister was incorporated into a college. The church’s bell tower received its present imperial-style roof and small turret in 1721, an imperial-style roof being a domed or curved form often crowned by a turret.
Restoration and protection
A major restoration campaign from 1860 to 1878 renewed the interior plasterwork and altered the roof. During the same period, the Eauze glass painter Jean-Baptiste Anglade extensively remade the stained glass. The removal of the interior plaster in 1972 revealed the warm tones of the stone and brick masonry, together with extensive reuse of rubble from the ruins of ancient Elusa. The church has been protected as a French historic monument since 1945.
Remains
Éauze Cathedral is a southern Gothic church built according to a Languedoc-type plan, a regional form often characterized by broad single-nave interiors. Its surviving structure consists of a seven-bay nave, low chapels between the exterior supports, and a polygonal choir ending in a cut-sided apse. The nave is about 10.70 metres wide and reaches approximately 21.65 metres at the keystone of its vault.
The Gothic church
Nave, chapels, and choir
The nave forms the principal interior space and is bordered by thirteen chapels arranged between the external buttresses, which are projecting supports that reinforce the walls. The church probably replaced an earlier building with three naves, a circumstance used to explain the unusual relationship between the present nave’s narrow width and considerable height. Its vault keystones carry sculpted and painted figures.
The polygonal choir has the same height and width as the nave and terminates in a cut-sided apse. The apse contains nine painted panels. Eight show scenes from the life of Jesus and other figures, while the upper panel represents Christ Pantocrator, an image of Christ as the all-ruling sovereign. Groups of stained-glass windows on either side of the apse depict prophets, apostles, and saints.
Entrance and bell tower
The principal entrance has a low-arched opening followed by several concentric pointed archivolts, or moulded bands that follow the curve of an arch. One archivolt is carved as a vine stem with curved branches, hooks, and finials, and is framed by elaborately worked pinnacles. A small porch behind the entrance forms an enclosed vestibule, or tambour, probably added around 1830.
The bell tower is square at its base and octagonal above. Its imperial-style roof and small turret were executed in 1721. The church’s glazing includes later work by Jean-Baptiste Anglade, while some fragments of older glass may date from around 1520. These earlier pieces have been attributed, with uncertainty, either to Arnaud de Moles or to Laurens of Agen.
Earlier structures and archaeological remains
Foundations beneath the church
Foundations of a substantial earlier structure were discovered in 1949. Built with small masonry blocks, they extend westward beneath the outer wall of the chapels on the south side. The sacristy also incorporates courses of large masonry blocks that may preserve the trace of a small apse. These remains provide physical evidence for earlier construction beneath or beside the present church.
The Saint Luperc building and ancient altar
The Saint Luperc stele found near the railway station belonged to a rectangular building with a roof made from large flat Roman fired-clay tiles. Its walls reused fragments of pagan votive altars. The stele itself is preserved at the Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, while the associated building connects the early Christian cult of Saint Luperc with the reused material of ancient Elusa.
An ancient marble altar without an inscription was found in the floor of the former monastery. It was identified as an altar dedicated to the Nymphs, despite bearing no inscription. Paintings, statues, and baptismal fonts associated with the church are also included in the Palissy cultural-heritage database, the French national catalogue of movable cultural heritage and church furnishings.
