CHAPELLE DE POUEY-LAÜN

The Pouey-Laün chapel is a domed chapel built on a rocky outcrop (mont de la source) just outside the village. The site is an ancient Roman oppidum at 930m altitude, before becoming a religious site. The chapel, built in the Middle Ages, served as a place of prayer for pilgrims on their way to the sanctuary of N.-D. de Pilar in Saragossa. The origins of these pilgrimages date back to 1350, when pilgrims from Saragossa - as recent discoveries seem to prove - were joined by passing pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela via the Peyre San Marti pass. All that remains of this hospitalet is a door lintel engraved 1590, set into a wall of the Arrens parish church. The chapel was rebuilt and enlarged in the 18th century (1684-1766), following the major earthquake of 1660. Sold as national property in October 1795 to four inhabitants of Argelès-Gazost, they had great difficulty in recovering their property in the face of the anger of the Arrens inhabitants. They quickly got rid of it, selling it to Madame Anne GLÈRE from Arrens. All archives and statues (with the exception of two statues: Marie and Saint Roch) were burnt when it was converted into barracks in 1806, during the Spanish Civil War. It was restored in 1807, following Hortense de Beauharnais? intervention with the Emperor, and reopened to worship on May 5, 1808. But in 1812, during the Spanish Civil War, the sanctuary was used as barracks. Anne GLÈRE bequeathed the buildings to her relative Michel POME, who in 1836, following a royal decree, handed them over to the Arrens church administration. Restored after the earthquake of 1854, it was the Bishop of Tarbes, Monseigneur Laurence, who subsequently undertook the restoration and entrusted the management, as in Héas, to the Fathers of Garaison in 1855. He presented the sanctuary with a relic of Saint Anne. This gave rise to imposing processions from 1857 to 1900. After disappearing, it was recently found in one of the sacristy?s drawers. It was "put back into service" in a magnificent gilded wooden shrine after the celebration of a high mass by Monseigneur Perrier. The building has been listed as a historic monument since September 1954. In 2016, the site was used as the setting for a film based on Bernard MINIER?s crime novel "Glacé", transforming it into a high-security psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately, the beauty of the site has been somewhat compromised by the presence of a medical institute of rather questionable aesthetic. Initially a novitiate of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception (Fathers of Garaison), the building became a college, then, after alterations in 1922, a preventorium for children, and in 1936, a Jean THÉBAUD sanatorium, before becoming a medical institute in 1973. This is the building we see today. It has just been closed for good. This was once the site of the pilgrims' hospital. All that remains of this hospitalet is the lintel on one of the walls surrounding Arrens church. It is dated 1591. The chapel's classical marble-framed entrance is surmounted by a statue of the Virgin Mary. It is protected by a baldachin serving as a porch. Built in 1785 and collapsed in 1820, the baldachin was subsequently rebuilt. The square bell tower dates from 1684, the date of the fleur-de-lys bell it houses. Beautiful calade on the floor. Inside, all the 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 known as the Vow of Louis XIII (1632-1638). It was restored in 1890. The floor, in rough granite, partly made from the site's own rock, was laid in the 19th century by quarrymen from Lourdes. The vast U-shaped balustered gallery, where pilgrims (men) once crowded, is a rare Lavedan feature. The beautiful blue ceiling, typical of the late 17th century, depicts a starry sky. The Gothic hanging keys are painted. The triple altarpiece or screen altarpiece, with four imposing twisted columns adorned with pampers, is surmounted by a pediment featuring an Assumption of the Virgin surrounded by angel heads; it is usually attributed to Marc FERRÈRE (1674-1758). The central statue of the Virgin (N-D de Poueylaün), rescued from the French Revolution, is framed by later statues of Saint Peter and Saint John. Made around 1850, they replace those destroyed around 1793. The tabernacle features a pelican on the door, symbolizing Christ, who gives his person to save his children. The grid decoration is supposed to be an imitation of the decoration in Louis XIV's bedroom at Versailles. The chandeliers were donated by a local family in 1919. There is also a chandelier said to have been donated by King Louis XIII.
The large wooden grille at the rear of the gallery features beautifully carved wooden panels, whose motifs are reminiscent of those on the decorated staircases of certain bourgeois houses. This grille was originally intended to separate the choir from the nave. The altarpieces in the side chapels are dedicated to Saint Anne and Saint Joseph. The altarpiece of St. Joseph, with its twisted columns, pilasters and lateral fins, was reconstructed in 1863, using composite elements, some of which date from the 17th century. The probable central painting was replaced by a statue of the saint after the French Revolution. The altarpiece of Saint Anne depicts Anne holding the Virgin in her arms. It is framed by two bas-reliefs representing the Infancy and Education of the Virgin. It was entirely rebuilt in the 1850s by a local sculptor, Pierre SOUSTRIC, after damage during the Revolution. The tabernacle houses Anne's relic hunt. The gallery houses the former rood screen (wooden grille) that separated the nave from the choir. The sacristy features carved wooden sideboards.
Source: www.patrimoines-lourdes-gavarnie.fr
Free guided tours in July and August (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, 2:30 pm to 6 pm).