Routes Santiago de Compostela - Hôpital-Saint-Blaise

Reference : FR087

POSTCARD AVAILABLE FOR TRADE
Size : 10 x 15 cm

"Hôpital-Saint-Blaise - Sur les chemins de St-Jacques de Compostelle
Edifice classé au Patrimoine Mondial de l'UNESCO"

Location of HOPITAL-SAINT-BLAISE in FRANCE :

Hôpital-Saint-Blaise

L'Hôpital-Saint-Blaise (Basque : Ospitalepea) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

It is located in the former province of Soule.

The Romanic church

With its squat shape, its thick walls and its little windows, the church is Romanic style ; but somme elements of Spanish-Moresque architecture confer it all its originality.

This bare monument with modest sizes presents a central plan on the dome.

The church benefited from two restorations:

• Between 1903 and 1906, the first one permitted to restore the porch and to save the church.
• During the second one, in the 80's, we decided to renew the roof with oaks' shingles because we made an exceptional discovery : a part of the frame is from the XIIth century.

The dome is a typically element of moresque architecture : it dates back to the Xth century with the Mosque's dome of Cordoba.

With the dome of Sainte-Croix, in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, it's the only one in the North of Pyrenees.
The Stone bar windows are also characteristic elements of the church : they remind moucharabiehs in the oriental countries.

They are unique in France: we can see them all arround the church.
The church crossed centuries and nowadays it finds all its beauty.

The church of Hôpital Saint-Blaise is a unique testimony with the mix between Romanic art and Spanish-Moresque art.

As one of the multiple locations (ID number : 868-017)
of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela,
Hôpital-Saint-Blaise is registered on UNESCO w.h.s. list.

UNESCO w.h.s. :
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France

Date of inscription : 1998

Santiago de Compostela was the supreme goal for countless thousands of pious pilgrims who converged there from all over Europe throughout the Middle Ages. To reach Spain pilgrims had to pass through France, and the group of important historical monuments included in this inscription marks out the four routes by which they did so.

Multiple locations list.