This small town in Haute-Garonne is fighting to restore and preserve its Romanesque chapel

Between brambles, ferns, ash trees, invasive vegetation… the ruins of the church of Argut-Dessous still stand relatively well on a mound in the middle of the village. There is no longer a roof on this chapel which became a dwelling in the 18th century, before being subsequently abandoned. Sections of walls have certainly collapsed, but the nugget is the vault of this Romanesque building. A vault still in very good state of conservation.

A vault in its original state

Clément Venco is an archaeologist and doctor in archeology from the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès: “We are lucky to have the vault at the bottom of the oven which is entirely preserved and in its original state without probably being repaired, given that we have lapidary elements inside which are made of tuff. It is a porous stone extremely used, particularly in the central Middle Ages, because it has the property of being easy to cut and above all of being much lighter.

Two moped frames, plow elements…

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To embark on this renovation, the town rolled up its sleeves and the mayor, Claude Jacquard, asked residents for a helping hand in cleaning the surrounding area. A fruitful “harvest”: “We found two moped frames, plow parts, kitchen parts, two or three scythe blades. It had become an easy site to get rid of everything that was cluttering a house.”

Once this first clearing was done, the archeology students brought together by Clément Venco searched like Clara, with a trowel, small shovels and a few broom brushes. Each homogeneous “layer” gives a stratum, a “floor”, which corresponds to an era. In some places it goes quickly, in others the roots are very intertwined. “Here, the stratigraphy is not very great. So we arrive quickly on the rock and there, we may have two layers before arriving on the rock”. Under the vault, for example, the excavation work quickly exposed the rock, a sign that the first version of the chapel was built in the Middle Ages directly on the mountain rock.

“We are giving back to the villages part of their history”

The other part of the work, administrative, and much more complicated for the town hall of this small town, was to prepare the expropriation file for this abandoned building, but never claimed by possible rights holders. Today, Argut-Dessous has regained ownership of the place and can therefore embark on this restoration campaign with peace of mind.

“Sometimes, we remove a few legends to put some science behind it”

Excavating is essential, especially in the hope of knowing more about the history of the place. Apart from a sales contract from the 18th century, there is no old document that mentions this religious building, not even its original name. Clement Venco: “That will be the challenge of dating! Stylistically, we can say 11th, 12th century, perhaps at the beginning of the 13th century. The Pyrenean Romanesque is quite late. This building was rare in its implementation, but also rare today for questions of conservation”. In any case, research on “small heritage” like this is essential for him: “These are small operations which generally last a year, two or three weeks or more for the study. We are restoring part of their history to the villages. There is a sentimental side also because we are on buildings which are known, which are frequented, where people come, where people came to play when they were kids. Sometimes, we remove a few legends to put back a little science. It always goes well.