Ancienne abbaye Saint-Aphrodise

English translation

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History

In the Late Empire (4th century), the abbey site corresponds to a Gallo-Roman necropolis situated outside the town. In the 6th century, the Christian necropolis surrounds and integrates with the sanctuary. Probable construction of a funerary monument dedicated to Saint Peter in the middle of the Christianized necropolis. The double dedication is given upon the inhumation of Saint Aphrodise (first mention of a sanctuary housing the remains of this saint in 858), considered as the first bishop founder of the Church of Béziers. In 967, first mention of the abbey in the cartulary of Saint-Nazaire. In 1171, first mention of the twelve canons in place of the Benedictine monks. The crypt is considered as the oldest part of the present church (lower dating: late 9th-10th century; higher dating: 16th century). It is situated under the triumphal arch, at the presumed location of the apse of the Romanesque church. Semi-circular in form, it presents a deambulatory around a confession. The doors giving from the deambulatory to the confession are recent. Originally, a single door was presumably framed by two small windows (fenestrellae). Of the Romanesque abbey there still remain certain elements: the abbatial church (partially), the south wall of the refectory, the east and west walls of the cloister. It must have presented an elongated plan with three naves and a single apse. The aisles and the nave terminate at the level of a transept marked out by diaphragm arches and whose crossing was surmounted by a lantern tower whose lighting was ensured by twin openings on all four faces. The Romanesque door set in the west façade was intended for the monks or canons. The tympanum is not decorated and would correspond to a paleochristian model. Attached to the north wall of the abbatial church, the cloister presented a gallery on a single level, whose carpentry covering rested on a series of arcades supported by small columns alternately simple and twin, with sculptured capitals. This cloister was demolished in the early 19th century. The refectory closes the north side of the cloister. The south wall is the only part preserved. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the transformations were the most important and considerably altered the appearance and proportions of the whole. A vast Gothic chevet takes the place of the Romanesque apse which disappears entirely. Chapels are attached to it. An enormous bell tower is built to the north, against the chevet. A rose window is arranged in the west façade of the church. A vast hall whose carpentry covering is supported by three pointed-arch diaphragm arches, and which incorporates the Romanesque wall to the south, succeeds the Romanesque refectory. Other transformations were carried out in the 18th century: raising of the aisles of the canonial church and covering by rib vaults; blocking up of the cloister arcades with replacement of the carpentry of the galleries by wooden and plaster vaults; the hall corresponding to the old refectory becomes a cellar. In the 19th century, destruction of the cloister galleries in 1836.