The municipality's position regarding the installation of a wind farm above Pradelles is to request compensation from the village of Pradelles, following the negative visual impact on the tourist site of Naussac. A new element complicates the matter a little more with the need for the wind project leaders to undertake research and write a report: The Chabassole chapel is emerging from oblivion!
Mentioned by the writer and historian, Vincent Minaire, in his book Window on Pradelles published in 2020, the chapel erected in the municipal forest of Pradelles dedicated to Marie Madeleine is gradually emerging from the oblivion into which time, ruin and the planting of the municipal forest had plunged it. Quoted in 1519 in a letter from the lord of Pradelles, the last direct witness to its existence was Abbot Aulagnier, parish priest of Brignon, who cited it in his famous diary.
Heritage Code
He says that on July 6, 1654, coming from Mauras, near Lesspéron, having crossed the forest of Chabassole, he saw in this countryside, “a chapel all alone, without door or glass or window, lamp or bowl in the middle, very badly kept, falling into ruins”. Which didn't stop him from getting off his horse. “to kneel on the ground and say goodbye”.
More recently, in April 2022, the regional archeology service took note of the potential presence of remains by listing this new entity in the archaeological map of the commune of Pradelles. This step allowed the administration to notify in July 2023, an archaeological diagnosis requirement to EDF Renewables, carrying out a wind power project on the site.
Following the Heritage Codethis approach aims “through studies, prospecting or field work, to highlight and characterize the elements of archaeological heritage possibly present on the site and to specify the results in a report”.
In the summer of 2024, the Pas d’éolienes à la Chabassole association explored the location. The presence of characteristic ruins has been located. If a future expert and patented visual diagnosis confirms these hypotheses, the examination and preservation of the remains could be undertaken within the framework of preventive archaeology.
Will the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine chapel in Chabassole, a grain of sand in the wind project, experience the enviable destiny of the Saint-Quentin church in Chaspinhac, dating back more than 1,000 years, unearthed by a construction site? youth in 2021?
Midi Libre correspondent: 06 72 11 89 06
