Chapelle de la Chaire à Loup

Situated in the middle of a vegetal desert, the Chapel of the Chaire à Loup was erected in the middle of the 16th century on a mound extended by a vast promontory. It is an edifice of framework that vandalism almost destroyed! It is advisable to place oneself in the context of origin, i.e. at the Gallo-Roman time, to appreciate the extent of the site, to see there a temple, perhaps thermal baths, certainly a theater and establishments which the past time deprives us of recognizing, the presence of two Roman ways in the vicinity (from Beauvais to Petromantalum [Saint Clair sur Epte], from Beauvais to Mantes). The chapel on its mound was completed with a cemetery which was blessed fifteen days after the church of Jouy-sous-Thelle. The building was built on a vast parcel of land belonging to the lordship of Jouy, apparently in meadowland because of the building foundations which made it difficult to use. Was the chapel built to Christianize an ancient pagan temple preserving habits that the evangelists of the first centuries wanted to destroy? And why the Chair(e) à Loup with different spellings? Preaching chair - the history of the primitive church indicates Saint Loup in the 4th century, Bishop of Troyes, who went to evangelize in England, fighting paganism, or the creation of a hermitage, Chair à Loup - or simply the proximity of a cemetery. The chapel was sold together with the lands of the castle of Jouy, in 1827, although the factory of the Church of Jouy ensured its maintenance. Finally, Abbot Laurent, the parish priest of Jouy, wanted to give the chapel back to the parish of Jouy which he was administering, so he bought it in 1833 and bequeathed it the following year to the Jouy church. It has been the property of this Commune since 1905, when the Church's factory was abolished. Today, with the resumption of the pilgrimage of the feast of the Nativity, on September 8, and perhaps that of March 25, feast of the Annunciation, the chapel finds, thanks to the will and the tenacity of Mr. Hervé Lefèvre, Mayor in office, and the majority of the Members of his Municipal Council, its reason to exist. Numerous patrons have made this restoration possible, and it remains to be continued with the precious assistance of the "Fondation du Patrimoine". May they all be warmly thanked. Roland LETAILLEUR

DATAtourisme France