POUEY-LAÜN CHAPEL

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The Pouey-Laün chapel is the chapel with a bell tower built on a rock (mont de la source) located outside the village. The site is an ancient Roman oppidum at an altitude of 930m, before becoming a religious site. The chapel, built in the Middle Ages, served as a place of prayer for pilgrims who went to the N.-D sanctuary. of Pilar of Zaragoza. The origin of these pilgrimages dates back to 1350. To the pilgrims of Zaragoza, as certain recent discoveries seem to prove, were added, with the construction of a hospital, the pilgrims passing through Santiago de Compostela, by the Col de la Peyre San Marti. All that remains of this hospitalet is a door lintel on which 1590 is engraved. It is embedded in a wall of the enclosure of the parish church of Arrens. The chapel was rebuilt and enlarged in the 1684th century (1766-1660), following the major earthquake of 1795. Sold as national property in October XNUMX, to four inhabitants ofArgelès-Gazost, they had the greatest difficulty in recovering their property in the face of the anger of the inhabitants of Arrens. They quickly got rid of it by selling it to Madame Anne GLÈRE of Arrens. All the archives and statues (with the exception of two statues: Mary and Saint Roch) were burned during its transformation into barracks in 1806, during the Spanish Civil War. It was restored in 1807, following the intervention of Hortense de Beauharnais with the Emperor, and reopened for worship on May 5, 1808. But in 1812, with the war in Spain, the sanctuary was used as a barracks. Anne GLÈRE bequeathed the buildings to Michel POME, her relative, who handed them over in 1836, following a royal ordinance, to the factory of the church of Arrens. Restored after the earthquake of 1854, it was the Bishop of Tarbes, Monsignor Laurence, who subsequently undertook the restoration and entrusted the management, as in Héas, to the fathers of Garaison in 1855. He offered the sanctuary a relic of Saint Anne. This gave rise to imposing processions from 1857 to 1900. After having disappeared, it was found, not long ago, in one of the drawers of the sacristy. It was "returned to service" in a magnificent gilded wooden shrine after the celebration of a high mass by Monsignor Perrier. The building has been listed as a historical monument since September 1954. In 2016, the site served as the setting for the film based on the detective novel “Glacé” by Bernard MINIER, transforming it into a high-security psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately, the beauty of the whole is a little deteriorated by the presence of a medical institute with rather questionable aesthetics. This establishment, initially novitiate of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception (fathers of Garaison) became college, then after transformations in 1922, preventorium for children, and in 1936, sanatorium Jean THÉBAUD, then medical institute in 1973. This is the building we see now. It has just been closed permanently. This is where the hospital for pilgrims used to be. All that remains of this hospitalet is the lintel which is on one of the surrounding walls of the church of Arrens. They are dated 1591. The classical entrance to the chapel, with its marble frame, is surmounted by a statue of the Virgin. It is protected by a canopy serving as a porch. Built in 1785, collapsed in 1820, the canopy was rebuilt afterwards. The bell tower, a square tower, dates from 1684, the date of the fleur-de-lis bell that it houses. On the beautiful calade floor. Inside, all this gilding gives the impression of being in a rococo theater. Tradition has it that the high altar was a gift from Louis XIII (1638) following his devotion to Mary and his request for the protection of France by the mother of Jesus, commonly called the vow of Louis XIII (1632-1638). ). It was restored in 1890. The floor, in rough granite, made up in part of the site's own rock, was made in the XNUMXth century by quarry workers from Lourdes. The vast platform with U-shaped balusters where pilgrims (men) once crowded has a rare form in Lavedan. The beautiful blue ceiling, typical of the end of the XNUMXth century, represents a starry sky. The Gothic hanging keys are painted. The triple altarpiece or screen altarpiece, with four imposing twisted columns adorned with vines, is surmounted by a pediment on which shines an Assumption of the Virgin surrounded by the heads of angels; it is usually attributed to Marc FERRÈRE (1674-1758). The central statue of the Virgin (ND de Poueylaün) saved from the Revolution is framed by the statues of Saint Peter and Saint John which are posterior to it. Made around 1850, they replace those destroyed around 1793. The tabernacle represents, on its door, a pelican, symbol of Christ who gives his Person to save his children. The grid decor is supposed to be an imitation of the decor of Louis XIV's bedroom at Versailles. The chandeliers were donated by a local family in 1919.
The large wooden gate at the back of the gallery has very beautiful carved wooden panels, the patterns of which recall those of the decorated staircases of certain bourgeois houses. This grid was originally supposed to separate the choir from the nave. The altarpieces in the side chapels are dedicated to Saint Anne and Saint Joseph. The altarpiece of Saint Joseph with twisted columns, pilasters and side fins was rebuilt in 1863, with composite elements, some of which are from the 1850th century. The probable central painting was replaced after the Revolution by a statue of the saint. The Saint Anne altarpiece depicts Anne holding the Virgin in her arms. It is framed by two bas-reliefs representing the Childhood and Education of the Virgin. It was completely redone after the degradations of the Revolution by a local sculptor, Pierre SOUSTIC, in the XNUMXs. The tabernacle houses the hunting relics of Anne. The gallery houses the old rood screen (wooden grille) which separated the nave from the choir. The sacristy exhibits chests in carved wood.
Sources: www.patrimoines-lourdes-gavarnie.fr
Free guided tours in July/August. From September to June, ask for the key at the Maison du Val d'Azun-TOURIST OFFICE.

• ​​Spoken Languages:

  French, English, Spanish

• Theme(s):

  Chapel