Chapelle Saint-Pons

The chapel hasn’t had a roof since the 1950s, and its architecture has suffered from weathering and infiltration.

The Mairie carried out emergency work in 2011 and 2012 to safeguard the apse (installation of shoring under the vault and protection of the roof) and reinforce a corner chain and masonry. An archaeological and diagnostic study was carried out in 2014. A restoration project is currently underway.

The house is built perpendicular to the slope. It is oriented and has a rectangular plan with a cul-de-four apse.

The nave walls are of squared, coursed limestone rubble masonry, rendered in lime-gypsum mortar. A small masonry bench runs along the foot of the south, west and north walls.

The south wall is crowned by an ashlar quarter-round cornice, interrupted in the center by a pilaster that has probably disappeared; above this cornice, the wall rises again with seven courses of ashlar masonry; it is pierced on the west by a segmental-arched door with straight embrasure and bar hole, and by two ashlar round-arched windows with very splayed embrasure; a small holy-water font is dug out to the east of the door.
The west wall features a large segmental-arched window (tribune door?) in ashlar, with a straight embrasure. At the ridge of this wall, slightly off-center to the north, is a small segmental tufa niche.
The north wall is blind, with a repeat of the masonry in the lower central section; it is crowned by an ashlar quarter-round cornice, interrupted in the center by a pilaster, which has probably disappeared; above this cornice, the wall still rises with nine courses of ashlar “moyen appareil”.
The apse is barrel-vaulted, with limestone ashlar keystones rising above a quarter-round ashlar cornice; this cornice is terminated at the shoulder of the apse by soft limestone corbels with a small flattened decoration; the central round-arched window is walled in; a second window, rectangular in shape and with a splayed opening, has been added on the south side.
The rendering is gypsum mortar with whitewash; a false window appears to have been carved into the rendering immediately north of the central window.

The nave floor is made of square terracotta tiles (17.5cm x 17.5cm) with chamfered edges, laid in diagonal bands.

Access to the choir is via a masonry step. The altar is masonry of limestone rubble, tuff and hollow tile fragments bound in gypsum mortar, all covered in white whitewash with black border decoration; the altar table is masonry with gypsum plaster and covered in terracotta tiles identical to those on the floor. Nothing remains of the nave’s interior covering.

The elevations are made of squared and dressed limestone rubble, masoned with lime and gypsum mortar. The south and north elevations are crowned by a quarter-round ashlar cornice.

The south elevation is pierced on the west side by a pointed-arched ashlar door with central keystone, the joinery was two-paned; and by two ashlar round-arched windows; the west corner features an uninterpreted projecting masonry relief; a drip moulding made of inclined and projecting stones runs halfway up this elevation in an irregular fashion.
The west elevation is pierced on the south side by a large, partly walled-in, ashlar bay with a semi-circular arch and central keystone. The elevation of the apse is of medium ashlar limestone (yellow and grey limestone), crowned by an entablature cornice and pierced in its center by a full-arched window of ashlar, walled in; it is pierced on the south side by a rectangular tufa window.
The apse is covered with hollow tiles masoned on the extrados of the vault. The nave’s long-sloped roof was covered with hollow tiles; the eaves, of which a few remains, are formed by the overhang of the first row of tiles.

See http://dossiersinventaire.regionpaca.fr/gertrude-diffusion/dossier/chapelle-saint-pons/