Chapelle Sainte-Radegonde de Chinon

About

The Sainte-Radegonde Chapel is a semi-troglodytic building, a former oratory transformed into a chapel on the side of the hillside of Sainte-Radegonde, east of the historic city centre of Chinon, in the French department of Indre-et-Loire in the Centre-Val de Loire region. The site is probably known from ancient times as a well whose waters are considered miraculous; tradition reports that the hermit John the Reclus is buried there; However, the main developments leading to the creation of a true chapel date back to the 11th or 12th century. The chapel owes its name to Radegonde de Poitiers, who several times met hermit Jean.

Several mural paintings, of different periods and very different conservation states, decorate the walls; One of them, probably representing a flight hunting scene, dates back to the late twelfth century. The precise identity of the characters present on this painting is still debated but it seems likely that they are several members of the Plantagenet house. The decommissioned chapel was sold as a national property to the French Revolution.

After being used as a home...