Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Sardaigne
A Romanesque chapel with a Roman sarcophagus at the door
The story
Before you is the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Sardaigne, Our Lady of Sardinia. This church is first mentioned in a book of Lérins Abbey from 1110–1125. In 1155 it passed for good to the bishop of Antibes. The present building was rebuilt in the first half of the thirteenth century and has barely changed since. It is Romanesque: a single vaulted nave, a rounded apse, a bell wall with two arches for the bells, and a small cross-shaped window in the west wall. For a long time the chapel was the parish church. In the early eighteenth century a new, larger church was built closer to the village, and the old one took its present name. Today a cemetery surrounds it. Since 1939 the chapel has been protected as a historic monument. At the entrance stands a Roman limestone sarcophagus. It was found in the early nineteenth century. Its inscription says it held the ashes of Marcus Octavius Nepos, who died on his eighteenth birthday.
Visiting
Open every day, all year, 9:30–17:30, free entry. The chapel stands in a cemetery, so please keep quiet. Hours are best checked on cotedazurfrance.fr.
Photos
Sources
- Ministère de la Culture, base Mérimée — Chapelle du cimetière, Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne (PA00080831)
- Côte d’Azur France — Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Sardaigne
- Wikipédia (FR) — Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne
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