Visiting the Royal Abbey at Angely (Charente-Maritime, France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Laurent and
I set out towards the interior of Charente-Maritime to see the
Abbaye Royale de Saint Jean d’Angély for several reasons. According to our handy tourist brochure of
the Saintonge area outside La Rochelle, we read that this abbey was founded by Pépin Duc d’Aquitaine
and grandson of Charlemagne in 817 C.E. to house the “chef de Saint Jean
Baptiste.”
“Chef” in
this case is what is known to French language teachers and students as a “faux
ami” or “false friend.” I knew that “chef”
here did not mean “cook” or “chief”. I
read a translation later in the guide that said the l’Abbaye Royale de Saint
Jean d’Angély protected the head, or chef, of Saint John the Baptist.
I wondered
if Saint John the Baptist’s head has been preserved throughout history in a reliquary
hidden from Viking invasions (850, 860, and 876), English invasions (numerous
or none depending on who you ask), the One Hundred Years War (1337 – 1453), and
the French Wars of Religion (1562 – 1598).
The Abbey
was reconstructed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the “classical
style” as our Saintonge tourist brochure remarked. The word “classical” during that time period
conjures up images of the Colonnade du Louvre and the Façade of
Versailles. Both of these structures
represent the apogee of Classicism in the Grand Style whereas the Abbaye of
Saint Jean d’Angély represents a later classical style called “Sévère” in
French.
In his book Reconnaître les Styles d’Architecture in
Gisserot’s Patrimoine Culturel Series, Christopher Renault provides photos of
the Colonnade of the Louvre built between 1667 – 1668 by Claude Perrault (1613
– 1688), Charles Le Brun (1619 – 1690), and Louis Le Vau (1612 – 1670) and the
Façade of the Château de Versailles completed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646
– 1708) in 1689 to illustrate the Grand
Classical Style of 1670 to 1685.
The
Colonnade of the Louvre has two stories, Corinthian columns and pilasters,
carved medallions over the windows, and sculpture over the entryway and in the
triangular pediment. On the façade of
Versailles, there are three stories, Corinthian columns, many windows,
sculptures on the third story and roof, and an enormous garden with patterned
parterres, geometrically designed trees, fountains, and a canal. These Grand Style elements of Classicism were
expensive to construct and maintain.
According to
Renault, the end of the seventeenth century witnessed economic problems, which
brought about the change in the Classical Style known as “le Style Sévère” in
French, which takes place after 1685.
L’Abbaye Saint Jean d’Angély contrasts greatly with Versailles and the
Louvre and not just because it is a religious institution.
Saint Jean
d’Angély is a two-story building with a high slanted roof to let Atlantic rains
pour off it easily. The windows on the
first floor are rectangular with no decorations or columns of any sort. The
second floor windows have only a simple semi-circle over them. This architecture is austere.
There are
two Rococo additions to this Severe Style building of the following
architectural period: the chimneys and the interlacing ironwork in a floral
pattern outside the balcony on the second floor, which is over the stairs to
the main entryway. This ironwork makes
the abbey beautiful, because it is surrounded by the plain yet elegant lines of the Severe
Classical Style.
It was
raining as we admired the architecture outside, and I was looking forward to a
guided tour away from the rain. Once we
entered the abbey, we climbed a huge spiral staircase that led us up and up,
but no visitor’s office was in sight. I
found out that we were on the wrong side of the building from the tourism
office. Rain prevented us from exploring
further.
We took out
our Saintonge tourism guide and decided to head south to Saintes to see another
abbey.
By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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| Laurent Paget Photography |
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| Ruth Paget Selfie |
