The Chapel of The Holy Cross (12th Century)
The Chapel of the Holy Cross (French: Chapelle de Sainte-Croix) was built to contain the most valuable relic in the Abbey, a piece of the True Cross. It is located a few hundred meters from the Abbey Church, outside the monastery walls, and is in the shape of a cross, with a vestibule on the north side, and four semicircular apses with semicircular domes around a square bay with a cloister vault. The vault is crowned by a perfect stone square, topped by triangular pediments and a small tower. The cornices and pediments are decorated with dentils. The building, with its dignity, simplicity, symmetry and perfect craftsmanship, is considered a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture.
Read more about this topic: Montmajour Abbey
Famous quotes containing the words chapel, holy and/or cross:
“The religion of England is part of good-breeding. When you see on the continent the well-dressed Englishman come into his ambassador’s chapel and put his face for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed hat, you cannot help feeling how much national pride prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“All human life is here, but the Holy Ghost seems to be somewhere else.”
—Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)
“She remembered home as a place where there were always too many children, a cross man and work piling up around a sick woman.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)