44 - LE TOUR D'ESPIAU

Built in the 10th and 11th centuries. The main interest of the chapel Saint-Pé la Moraine is however not in its architecture, but in its exceptional decoration (sculptures, reuse ...).Saint-Pierre or Saint-Pé-de-la-Moraine Chapel This pretty chapel is located on a moraine - large mass of ice - of the Larboust glacier. Saint-Pé-de-la-Moraine, built in a mixture of limestone, granite, shale and recuperation of ancient materials. Although reworked at the end of the Middle Ages, it is representative of the style of the first Romanesque art in this mountain Comminges of the Middle Ages based on the richness of its Gallo-Roman heritage. A few cinerary trough lids, these funerary urns, integrated into the chapel, are characterized by slightly less conventional representations. On the buttress of the chevet, notably on the base slab, the sculptor has added attributes (pottery and a series of tools) to the usual simple busts embodying the deceased. It is certainly their professional activity that we wanted to evoke. But the building was implanted in the middle of an area whose traces of occupation go back well beyond this period.Excavations have revealed that the chapel is at the heart of a Neolithic burial site. Inside, the stone paving, probably contemporary to the construction of the chapel, depicts a fish, a Christian symbol from the origins of Christianity. Excavations have revealed that the chapel is at the heart of a Neolithic burial site. Inside, the stone paving, probably contemporary to the construction of the chapel, depicts a fish in one place, a Christian symbol dating back to the origins of Christianity. Also to be seen: the altarpiece, high in color, decorated with trompe-l'oeil paintings. The motifs correspond to the ornamental vocabulary of 17th century altarpieces. Classified as a Historical Monument, it is dated 1682 but its statues are probably earlier (Peter, the patron saint of the chapel, Saints Blaise and James).