Ensemble paroissial Saint-Martin-de-Castillon

English translation

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History

A first chapel was built in the 10th century. It subsequently became one of the two parish churches of Les Baux which then included Maussane, Mouriès and Le Paradou. In 1633, the church was partly rebuilt by Jacques Audran, mason of Les Baux. The Romanesque scheme (barrel vault) was undoubtedly inspired by existing work that survives. Its status as a parish church soon made it too small, which became a recurring problem for more than two centuries. In 1671, the Chapel of Saint-Joseph built to the South on a design by Pierre Audran was the first extension of the church. Shortly afterwards, the need to adequately house a curate led to the (re)construction of a presbytery. The second extension of the church carried out in 1703, under the impetus of Sébastien Quenin, created the vast Chapel of the Virgin which forms the northern counterpart to the Chapel of Saint-Joseph. Construction effort in the 18th century focused essentially on the presbytery, the only notable undertaking for the church being that of the bell tower in 1772. In 1735, the presbytery in very poor condition was small. In addition to repairs, an extension over the cemetery was undertaken in 1742. It consisted in creating the building to the East of the garden as well as raising by one storey the existing building (North of the garden). This necessitated the relocation of the cemetery with its cross (registered historic monument 1935) to the East of the church before it was confined to the North, finally to be moved in 1873 to its current location. The Revolution marked a period of latency in the life of the church which was relegated to the status of a subsidiary chapel in 1790. While Saint-Martin de Castillon took the name of Le Paradou, the church became a parish church again. The problem of space did not take long to reappear. Several solutions were considered. In 1848, the apse of the choir of the 17th-century nave was (re)built. This too modest enlargement led to the first projects for a complete reconstruction of the church which proved rapidly too expensive and difficult to carry out (destruction of the presbytery). A pragmatic project designed by Bompuy was finally adopted in 1866: the enlargement of the Chapel of the Virgin, so that the latter covered an area equivalent to the main nave. However this undertaking was not permanent. The project that Véran carried out in 1894 provided a definitive solution to the construction problems and lack of space. The Arles architect built a new nave in place of the former Chapel of the Virgin larger than the 17th-century nave. The budgetary constraints of the community, which ultimately determined the entire history of the building, led Véran to design a sober project, with simple decoration but carefully worked in a neo-Romanesque aesthetic that was dear to him. He adopted an approach close to the existing one with its three bays and barrel vault. On the other hand, he emphasized the whole by raising significantly the height of this new nave and distinguished himself by designing a chevet with cut-off angles. Among the few sculptured decorations, the capitals of the columns of the sculptors Brémond's portal are noteworthy. Strong from this achievement, Véran was retained in 1896 for a second phase of work intended to harmonize the façades of the new (19th-century) and old (17th-century) nave. The church that Véran delivered was sober in its writing but also devoid of painted decoration. The scholar George Ratyé and the curate Laurent Beissière were the principal authors of the paintings that covered the choir and each of the side chapels between 1894 and 1904. Occasionally, items of cabinetwork and stained glass were commissioned notably from the Aix workshop of Louis André. The presbytery was remodelled in the 1880s, a period in which an imposing staircase was destroyed, the distribution at the upper floors was revised and the use of the rooms was modified. However the overall logic was maintained since the living rooms were kept on the ground floor, the bedrooms on the upper floor, and the service rooms in the building to the East of the garden. Furthermore, the modest decoration of the presbytery was largely preserved notably in its rib vaults.