Church of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul

The church of Saint Pierre and Saint Paul de Chânes was built in the 11th century by the monks of the nearby Cluny Abbey, on the site of a 9th century church. Its Romanesque nave is extended by an apse on the dome from which one can admire a fresco of Byzantine style. The gabled facade is decorated with semicircular Lombard arches highlighted by a "sawtooth" band. The bell tower is of the Cluniac type.

About this building

It is in Chânes, a small winemaker village perched on the first hills of Beaujolais, that the monks of the nearby Abbey of Cluny built, on the site of an old church of the 9th century, the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the 11th century.

The single nave, typically Romanesque (11th century), whose original structure can still be seen, is illuminated on each side by two enlarged windows. Decorated with semicircular Lombard arches highlighted by a horizontal band called a "sawtooth" or "teeth of wolf", it is characteristic of the ornamentation of the churches of the first Romanesque art in Mâconnais.

The octagonal bell tower has three floors, with four sections (of unequal size to the east and west) and twenty-eight columns. Built in the twelfth century, it was completed (the two floors and the spire) in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Chapel of the Blessed Virgin dates from the middle of the 17th century.

Like many other religious monuments, the church was looted during the Revolution. In the nineteenth century, the South Chapel and the sacristy were added to the church, while on the Byzantine dome-shaped cupola E. Krug painted a fresco (1873) in the Byzantine style. The latter represents Christ entrusting his mission to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, patrons of the parish.

Key Features

  • Architecture
  • Monuments

Other nearby buildings

Mâcon Cathedral

Church erected in 1070 by monks. It has undergone several phases of work and remodelling over the centuries to acquire its present appearance in the 20th century. In 1855, it became the Cathedral.

Cluny Abbey

The Abbey of Cluny, founded in the 10th century, quickly became the most important Benedictine monastery in Western Europe, triggering a revival of monastic practises on the continent. Until the 12th century, the Abbey of Cluny governed monastic life in Europe and gave birth to 1800 sites throughout western Europe. Due to its rapid growth, the buildings of the abbey were modified on numerous occasions, notably during the reconstructions from 963 to 981 and from 1080 to 1220. The last reconstruction made the abbey the largest Christian building in the world until the construction of St Peter's Basilica (1506-1626). The monastery was dissolved in 1790 and was largely destroyed during the French Revolution. The large library and archives caught fire in 1793 and the church was looted. The present remains of the monastery represent about 10% of the total area of the third abbey (1080-1220). Since 1901, the former monastery has been part of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM).

Sauvegarde de l'Art Français
a chapel surrounded by fields

Chapel Saint-Humi

The Chapel of Saint-Humi is located in Uchizy, in the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region. Built in the 12th century on the foundations of an ancient Gallic temple, the chapel belonged to a small monastic community. This place has, for millennia, been a site of pilgrimage and healing. The chapel is dedicated to Saint Humi, a hermit monk of the diocese of Saint-Claude in the Jura, who was a renowned healer of deaf people and stunted children.