The Romanesque tower of the monastery of Cormery in the Loire valley: some architectural and liturgical aspects

Thomas Pouyet (1)

1 CITERES - Cités, Territoires, Environnement et Sociétés

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXCYH71Vx5c The tower-porch was part of the abbey church of Cormery, a monastery established in the Loire valley at the end of the 8th century by an abbot of St Martin of Tours. It became an important Benedictine abbey during the medieval time and was abandoned at the end of the 18th century. Today the church is largely destroyed but the tower located in front of it is almost integrally preserved, some remains of the Carolingian church are even still retained in the facade of the building. This tower contains many carved capitals representing Lion on the ground, Corinthian on the first floor and vegetal decorations on the second but also some bas-relief located at the front of the entrance-tower. The architectural analysis of this building has been conducted during a doctoral work achieved in December 2019. Multiple phases of construction from the 9th-10th to the 12th centuries have been identified, providing new elements regarding the interpretation of the sculpture and the themes identified. In this paper we propose to present some aspect of this research related to the architecture inquiry such as the widespread use of stones in moyen appareil but also connected to the liturgical functions of the tower, which was probably the place of Easter celebrations or some funerary Clunisian customs during the 11th century.

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Art et histoire de l'art; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Thomas Pouyet. The Romanesque tower of the monastery of Cormery in the Loire valley: some architectural and liturgical aspects. Postgraduate Conference of the British Archaeological Association, Nov 2020, London, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-03028330⟩