The Basilica of Saint-Martin d'ainay is an old abbey church in
Romanesque style (twelfth century) located in the Ainay district, on
the peninsula of Lyon. It was elevated to the rank of basilica in
1905.
The basilica is the subject of a classification as
historical monuments by the list of 1840.
The central apse
and the apsidiole are the work of Hippolyte Flandrin (1855).
Location: 11 Rue Bourgelat
Tel. +33 472 40 02 50
The monks of the abbey of Ainay claimed on the basis of a writing
by Gregory of Tours that the basilica had been founded in the fifth
century, on the site of the discovery of the remains of the martyrs
of Lyon, and presented to veneration a bag of ashes and a stone on
which Pothin would have placed his head. This origin is considered
with skepticism by recent historical works, given the imprecision of
Gregory's text, the difficulty in locating precisely the place he
names Ad Athanacum and the alternative of another tradition which
locates the invention of the remains of the martyrs in Saint-Nizier.
Another legend says that the abbey was founded by a hermit named
Badulphe and dedicated then to Saint Martin of Tours.
Nowadays, we still have no attested traces of the existence of the
abbey before the ninth century. It is precisely in a writing of 859
that he made mention of it for the first time, a writing in which
Charles of Provence approves the foundation of a monastery in
Cessieu by Aurelian, abbot of the royal monastery of Ainay. This is
then described as abandoned. We also have traces of the foundation
of a Benedictine priory on the Lyon peninsula in 859.
The
abbey had a central role in the celebration of the Feast of Wonders
whose origin is attributed to Saint Badulphus. She celebrated Saint
Pothin and the martyrs on June 2, an anniversary that counted among
the greatest solemnities of the monastery.
The establishment
is elevated to the rank of abbey, major works begin: built at the
end of the eleventh century according to the will of Father abbot
Gaucerand, the abbey church is dedicated on January 29, 1107, and
under the name of Saint Martin by Pope Pascal II (1099-1118). This
church is one of the few Romanesque churches preserved in Lyon. On
the same day, an altar is dedicated to the Conception of Our Lady.
In the thirteenth century, during the reign of Saint Louis,
during the first council of Lyon, convened by Pope Innocent IV to
excommunicate the emperor Frederick II, the pope recognizes the
abbey pre-eminence over 71 churches, abbeys and priories from
Burgundy to Provence. For example, the priory of Saint-Jean de
Genève, which was affiliated to it, collected tithes, owned land and
had authority over parishes between the Pays de Gex, the Genevois
and the Faucigny. The abbey of Ainay was then one of the most
powerful in the kingdom of France.
John II of La Palud, abbot
between 1313 and 1324, built a palace in the monastery.
During the Renaissance, the monastery had a port, its abbot lived in
a palace and the monks had important buildings with cloister, garden
and vineyard. The monastic life is relaxing: indeed, the abbot is
now appointed by the king, according to the regime of the
commendation; his temporal power does not decrease but the spiritual
life is affected by it.
In 1504, the king appointed
commendatory abbots, which marked the beginning of the decline of
the abbey. From this period, land is sold, occupied by new
neighborhoods.
In 1562, during the wars of religion, the
troops of Baron des Adrets destroy part of the buildings: the
cloister is razed, the church devastated, the archives burned. In
1600, Henry IV stayed at the abbey, on the occasion of his wedding
with Marie de Medici, which was held in the cathedral of Lyon.
Camille de Neufville de Villeroy was appointed commendatory
Abbot at the age of five. Consecrated archbishop of Lyon in 1653, he
obtained the secularization of the abbey in 1685.
At the end of the XVII century, the monastery disappeared. The church
and the remaining buildings were entrusted to a secular chapter in 1685.
Between 1723 and 1769, the chapter decides to subdivide the perimeter of
the building to enhance the land.
The church becomes a parish
and, on January 27, 1780, loses the title of abbey.
Louis XIII
stayed there with his minister Richelieu, then Louis XIV stayed there
four times.
During the Revolution, the monastery was confiscated,
the palace of the abbots was razed. The church becomes a granary, which
avoids its destruction.
The church was reopened to the faithful
in 1802. Classified as a historical monument in 1844, it was restored
during the nineteenth century in a neo-Romanesque style. The architects
Pollet and Benoît restore it in a "pure Romanesque" spirit, destroying
the last traces of the cloister, and enlarging it by adding collateral
chapels.
Medieval mosaics discovered in the Sainte Blandine
chapel during the works of 1844-1845 did not arouse any interest and
were destroyed. Another mosaic was unearthed in 1851 near the main
altar. It represents a clergyman presenting a model of the church. It is
the only medieval mosaic discovered in Lyon in the nineteenth century
which is partially restored, first between 1852 and 1855, then a second
time in 1934.
The former abbey church, then parish church of
Saint-Martin d'ainay, was elevated to the rank of minor basilica by Pope
Saint Pius X on June 13, 1905.
All architectural styles are found in the basilica of Ainay:
pre-Romanesque in the Sainte-Blandine chapel, Romanesque for all its
main structure, the Saint-Michel chapel is Gothic, the whole was
restored and enlarged in the nineteenth century by neo-Roman
additions.
The basilica retains, despite its eventful
history, a real unity of style.
The tower located on the facade is a bell tower-porch which rises to
31 meters. Its base is built with stones from ancient monuments and
dates from the eleventh century. The door and the pointed vault date
from the end of the twelfth century. The tympanum was made by
Joseph-Hugues Fabisch in 1860.
On the forecourt, to the left of
the door, we can find a bas relief dating from the eleventh century. The
one placed outside is a reproduction, the original being in the
basilica.
We see at the back two different bedside tables: that of the Sainte-Blandine chapel, square in shape and dating from the high Middle Ages, and that of Saint-Martin of circular shape built in the twelfth.
The chapel of Saint-Michel, in flamboyant Gothic style, was rebuilt a little before 1485 on the site of the Romanesque chapel of the Conception Notre-Dame. She took the name of Saint-Michel in 1690. Jacobé Razuret made the paintings in 1899 and Lucien Bégule the three stained-glass windows at the end of the nineteenth century. The carved panels on a mosaic background were made by Joseph-Hugues Fabisch and come from the pulpit of the Saint-Martin Church.
The oldest chapel is the Sainte Blandine Chapel. There are archaeological traces of an older chapel, but the current one would date from the eleventh century. however, it was vaulted and remodeled in the nineteenth century (there are few traces of the chapel as it was around the year One thousand). This is one of the last vestiges of the basilica in its ancient form. It consists of a chapel and a crypt. This crypt is decorated with a mosaic on the floor, with the names of the Lyon martyrs, two niches to house relics, and a small altar.
The nave is 17 meters wide while the building is 37 m long.
The four monolithic columns that support the dome in front of the choir
are Egyptian Syenite. They would have been recovered from the ruins of a
Roman monument, and cut in two: the north-east pillar connects above the
south-west pillar, and the south-east pillar can be placed on the
north-west pillar. According to the Lyon tradition, they would come from
the columns of the altar of Rome and Augustus which was part of the
Federal Sanctuary of the Three Gauls, on the slopes of Croix-Rousse.
The candlestick present in the dome dates from the nineteenth
century. It is a tribute to the candlestick of Barbarossa ordered and
offered as an offering to Mary by Frédéric Barbarossa in the eleventh
century, and installed in the cathedral of Aachen. The Lyon version is
in gilded copper, enameled, and represents the walls of a city and its
towers. According to the Ministry of Culture, it was made around 1860,
then offered to the basilica by Irénée Chalandon in 1861.
The organ of the Beaucourt & Voegeli factors, executed between 1847
and 1850, is sold second-hand to the Great Synagogue of Lyon shortly
after its construction, in 1864.
In 1866, a choir organ with 2
keyboards and 12 stops with a 16-foot bourdon, as well as an organ case
in Northern fir and linden sculptures, was ordered from the
Cavaillé-Coll manufacture for a total amount of 17,500 Francs. It was
installed in 1867, at the entrance to the Saint-Michel Chapel.
In
1890 a large organ with 3 keyboards and 36 stops by the builder Joseph
Merklin was installed in the nave, north of the dome. This is the
current organ. Lifts were carried out by Michel - Merklin & Kuhn in 1921
- inauguration by Émile Poillot - and 1938.
The organ case in the
gallery, which is that of the old Cavaillé-Coll organ, dates from 1867,
and that of the nave, which is that of the current Merklin organ, dates
from 1890.
The territory of the abbey included many possessions. The land of the peninsula went from the confluence to the Rhone bridge, consisting of gardens, a cloister and an abbey house. The commendatory abbots begin to sell these lands in the sixteenth century, which will continue until the eighteenth century. At the time of the French Revolution, the Rue de l'Abbaye d'ainay was created on the site of the cloister and the house. There are still elements of the abbey house in the wall of the hotel on the forecourt of the church. The place of d'ainay which is in front of the church was originally surrounded by the cloister. In the middle of the street named "Ainay Vault" which is in the extension of the Place d'ainay, a vault built in the eighteenth century spans the roadway; it is surmounted by a house built by Paul Perrache: at this location was an access door to the abbey.