29 July 2006

La Chapelle du Liget

Just a kilometer or so to the west of the Chartreuse du Liget, toward Loches, there's a little chapel in a big field surrounded by woods. It's called the Chapelle Saint-Jean, or the Chapelle du Liget. You have to drive a mile or less on a gravel road to get to it.

The chapel looks big in this picture but is smaller in reality.
That's my car parked over by the tree.

The little round chapel was built in the 12th century. CHM and I were there on a Saturday afternoon, and we had the place completely to ourselves. Unfortunately, the doors were locked, so we could only peer into the building through metal grates on the windows. The interior walls are covered in frescoes.

The front portico is obviously missing

The exterior walls are decorated with stone carvings of all kinds of faces, as you can see in these pictures. I find it hard to believe these are the original 12th-century stonework, but I don't know. It's clear the chapel has been cleaned on the outside, but not clear whether any other restoration work has been done.


Here are close-ups of some of the stone faces. Some are smiling, some frowning, and some just look menacing or stupefied.




According to one of the guidebooks, you can get the keys to the chapel from the people down the road at the charterhouse (La Chartreuse du Liget). Then you can admire the frescoes inside. Next time...

2 comments:

  1. This looks totally cool. How great that you have been exploring real "off the beaten track" places! Now you can cool your heels (perhaps, if the weather cooperates) at home for a while....

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  2. When you were here, you and Sue and I drove down the gravel road to see the Chapelle du Liget. But for some reason we just drove by it and didn't check it out up close. Remember when we came to the other end of the gravel road I got out of the car and took down a tape that was closing the road off? We then drove through and I put the tape back up...

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