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Patricia Yates 20th Century
St Saturnin Church Boule-d'Amont Catalan Pyrénées-Orientales Southern France

" P Yates" and inscribed on the reverse

pencil and watercolour
17.50 x 25.50 cm.

Unframed

Notes

Built in the 11th century in the town of Boule-d'Amont, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, the Saint-Saturnin church takes place between the priory of Serrabone and the chapel of the Trinity of Prunet-et-Belpuig.

Heavily altered in the 18th century, in particular with the addition of a collateral to the north and the construction of a new portal to the west, it now benefits from an inscription in the Historic Monuments. In brown freestone, the Saint-Saturnin church seduces with its apse in the Lombard Romanesque style and its massive western facade dominated by a bell tower with two large bell-tower bays.

Inside, the building has retained almost all of its original architecture, revealing in particular a single nave with two spans closed by a semi-circular vaulted apse in a cul-de-four.

Boule-d'Amont Catalan is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. Boule d'Amont is a small village located in the Aspres; Starting from Bouleternère, the road seems very long! There is no other village between the two, unless you branch off to the surrounding villages. We are in one of the most depopulated areas of the Pyrénées-Orientales.

To get there, if you are leaving from Perpignan, take the N116 towards Andorra and turn off at Bouleternère. Then, it will be indicated, As the crow flies, there are only 25 Kms from Perpignan to Boule d'Amont, but in practice there are a good forty kilometers, which you will cover in three quarters of an hour (pretty much!) .

The village is relatively small. It is bordered by the departmental road which winds along the local river, the Boulès. A small field and buttresses dug with niches separate the road from the heart of the village. The newly renovated town hall, occupying the former public school, is below, with the war memorial facing it. The small road that goes up, passes behind the church, skirts the underside of the inn to arrive at a pretty cobbled square. Most of the houses, if not all the houses, are made of exposed stone, it gives the village a lot of character. Some facades have let ivy invade them and like some wooden shutters, the famous "Catalan style" shutters are colored, all the houses do not give an impression of uniformity.

If the territory of Boule d'Amont has one of the main priority of the department, the famous Priory of Serrabone, the village is quite interesting despite its small size. It houses the St Saturnin church whose various altarpieces have been restored. Moreover, it conceals great treasures: A black Virgin, chalices, silver crosses, etc. The church itself is quite classic but still has beautiful blind arcades on its chevet. On the heights of the village, the "Font Vella", a public fountain (untreated therefore not drinkable) will allow you to refresh yourself and as we said a fairly classic war memorial on which are inscribed 21 soldiers of the 1st war world whose life course has been the subject of quality research, which can be consulted at the town hall.

If the village itself is quite simple, it is its region that makes it rich, in addition to the content of its church. The Aspres is a territory rich in hiking and cycling trails, people go up there frequently for mountain biking or walking. There are many objectives: chapels, oratories, springs, surrounding peaks, neighboring villages, etc. The nearest peak is Puig de Santa Anna. On the other side of this peak are the communes of La Bastide and Glorianes, in lower Conflent. Moreover, you can get there via the "Les Arques" pass, which nevertheless rises to more than 1000m in altitude.

One of the characteristics of the commune of Boule d'Amont is the great scattering of its habitat. This is often the case in these isolated municipalities, there are a large number of farmhouses. Some are a little grouped together, forming sorts of hamlets which do not have the name.