Roquemaure, Gard - Chapels

Chapels

Chapel of Saint-Agricol d'Albaret

The ruins of the chapel are 6 km southwest of the town next to the A9 autoroute. The chapel was once part of a priory belonging to the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-André in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. The word "Albaret" is the name of a small village that was served by the chapel in the Middle Ages. The earliest mention of the priory is when the benefice was donated to the bishop of Avignon sometime between 1104 and 1110. The bishop passed on the benefice to the Abbey of Saint-André. The records show that in 1845 the building was in a reasonable state of repair and that in 1881 a mass was celebrated in the chapel.

The chapel has a semi-circular apse at the eastern end which is built of carefully laid stonework. The choir is similarly well constructed except high up where rubble masonry is used. The two buttresses at the western end of the choir show evidence of having been modified. The walls of the nave, which now lacks a roof, are built with irregular blocks of stone. The western door, which is surmounted by a niche and an oculus, appear to date from the 17th century. The chapel must have once had a graveyard as excavations carried out in 1989 in an area to the southeast unearthed 22 burials dating from the High Middle Ages. The oldest parts of the chapel are in the early Romanesque style and probably date from the 11th century. The choir was reconstructed in the 12th century and then in the 17th century the building was restored and the murals added.

Chapel of Saint-Sauveur in Truel

Truel is a hamlet 2.3 km south of the town. This chapel was also once part of a priory belonging to the Abbey of Saint-André. It is now a private house. The chapel differs from others belonging to the abbey in having a more complex architecture and a plan in the form of a Latin cross.

Chapel of Saint Joseph des Champs

The chapel is 1.3 km southwest of the town on the south side of the D976 to Tavel. Roman shards have been uncovered nearby suggesting that the chapel may have been built on the site of an earlier Roman building.