La Chapelle Notre Dame de Spéluque

NOTRE DAME DE SPELUQUE CHAPEL

This tiny chapel was built in the Xth Century by Berenger the 3rd. Frejus bishop dedicated the chapel and named it Beate Marie de Specula. It is also known as Notre Dame du Plan chapel; after an order was signed on 26th June 1990 it was registered as a classified monument.

Built on the Nartuby riverside, at the foot of the Rouvieres and Canjuers Plateau, this monument is made of one single nave, 3 bays, arched with a vaulted ceiling and ended with a quarter spherical vaults. On the left side of the church choir, the sacristy used to stand where a primitive chapel had been originally built in the Xth century.

At the time when the Sarrazins settled in the Fraxinet region (the area around the actual village Garde Freinet) these ones invaded Tourtour plains. Local Inhabitants fought and resisted, and swore that if they won the war they would build a chapel as a testimony for their gratitude to the Virgin Mary. Being faithful to the wish they had made, they managed to eradicate the invasion and build a monument.

Some years later, a perfidious knight called Trunan and his relatives destroyed this outstanding example of the roman art as well as the monastery and the small village. The chapel was the only monument to be rebuilt, four monks and a priest were nominated to rule it. Mrs AutRan bought and sold it in 1973 to the Jerphanion family who, in turn, chose to give it back to the clergy.