Ancienne abbaye de Saint-Amand

English translation

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History

The traditions concerning the life of the hermit Amand were transmitted to us by Étienne Maleu, canon of Saint-Junien, in the early 13th century. It was towards 500 that Amand is said to have settled on the south flank of a rocky promontory at the confluence of the Vienne and the Glane, depending on the vicus of Comodoliac and belonging to the bishop of Limoges, Rorice I. This site dominated an important crossing point consisting of the fords on the two rivers, and the bishop is said to have had an oratory and a cell built for him there. After his death, his renown was eclipsed by that of his disciple Junien, and it was not until 1083 that his tomb was rediscovered, through the initiative of Hughes, abbot of Cluny. A canon Ramnulfe had a church built there, consecrated in 1094, and which, contrary to a recent name, was never the seat of an abbey. In 1339 it was known, as a parish church outside the walls, under the name of Saint-Amand-le-Vigen (Sanctus Amandus de Viniano), no doubt because of the proximity of the Vienne. Of this building with a single nave and choir with apse, the north transept remains, whose eastern wall bends into an apsidiole, the north half of the chevet wall, and two vaulted lower rooms. In the north transept, recent excavations revealed a network of channels feeding a basin in flat tiles, later replaced by the granite fountain, called the fountain of Saint-Amand. The sarcophagus is not the tomb of the holy hermit but was said to have been deposited here in the early 19th century. The Recollet Franciscans, established on the site in 1598, had a convent built at the top of the hill in 1640, then restored the church in 1646-1647. This one, partially demolished during the property transfers due to the Revolution, appears in ruins on an engraving of the years 1825-1830. It is perhaps in place of their upper church, dedicated to Notre-Dame, that Pierre-Léonard Périgord, first sub-prefect of the arrondissement of Rochechouart, had built, around 1825, a kind of italianising belvedere. The development of the site in terraces dates from the years 1890-1900, after the creation of the new road to Angoulême along the Vienne. What remains of the convent of the Recollets, much transformed, today houses a Youth Hostel.