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Here's a surprise.
In this little hilltop village on
the road between Lons and Lac de
Chalain sits a magnificent 19th
century urban church. Even
better, it has been maintained,
restored and reordered in a very
thoughtful and restrained manner,
and is full of light, a warm and
spiritual place. It
was built in 1860 on the site of
a ruined 14th century church; I
couldn't see any early
gravestones, so I assume the
church had fallen out of use,
perhaps at the time of the French
Revolution.
High buttresses
climb to the elegant tower, which
is topped by a spire decorated
with varnished tiles in the local
manner. You step into a light
like honey, painted arcading and
pillars picked out to lead your
eye to the great east end. This
has been reordered in the
approved Vatican II manner, a
simple, prayerful sanctuary.
Outside, on the wall
of the farmyard across the road,
was a long line of stone roofing
tiles, commonly found on churches
and old farmbuildings in the
area. Saint-Jean-Baptiste may be
very different from the great
majority of them, but it stands
as a sign that the 19th century
left the region with a few fine
buildings. Not all churches of
the time are as dull as the one
at le
Vaudioux.
Saint-Jean-Baptiste,
Vevry, is on the D39 road between
Lons and Lac de Chalain, just to
the west of Chatillon. I found it
open.
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