The Saint-Julien-et-Sainte-Basilisse chapel is located in the town of Villeneuve-de-la-Raho, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, 9 km south of Perpignan.
The building which dates from the 12th century was raised at the bottom of a hill where the village developed. It was the parish church for a long time before being replaced in the 17th century. Abandoned, the chapel, protected as a historical monument, was recently restored.
Representative of the Roussillonnais Romanesque style, the building has the singularity of having its various parts nested within each other. The single nave opens onto a choir of more modest dimensions, which itself ends in a semicircular apse. Inside, the choir is framed by two double arches resting on columns engaged with capitals.
The bedside table, although it has been reworked and reworked several times, still has a double series of superimposed blind arches. Of this set, there are four ornate capitals.
There are still vestiges of the old monumental door, to the south, and the beautiful vaulting of the broken barrel nave.
This testimony of medieval architecture in Roussillon can mark a walk in the south of the Perpignan agglomeration, near the lake of Villeneuve-de-la-Raho. Information on +33 4 68 66 30 30.
