Old Churches

Bon Jour Mes Amies,

Lyon has plenty of churches--most of them old--some of them Very Old.  I visited a few today. The weather report was uncertain, so I needed something I could do even if it rained.  I covered a lot of ground and saw more than I could actually visit as it happens.  Some I thought would be open weren't.  In one a funeral was going on and fortunately I saw a notice outside before I went barging in.  All the churches in Lyon are living churches meaning that they are community centers where people worship regularly even in officially secular France.
First I crossed both the Rhone and Saone to Old Lyon.  Shall we start out with Lyon Cathedral also known as Eglise St. Jean since it is dedicated to John the Baptist.  But how many churches do you know that have their Roman foundations visible?  Christianity had certainly come to Lugdunum by the end of the Second Century, and church buildings were being built by the Fourth Century.  The original church on the site was dedicated to St. Stephen in the Fourth Century, and some of the fabric is still incorporated in the current building.  Not all went smoothly for the Christians or the Church.  During the persecutions, martyrs died in the arena, one of them was the Bishop known as St. Nizier.  He has a nice church dedicated to him near the Cathedral but it was closed.  Another was Blandina whom the lions did not find appetizing.  The Roman authorities had to find a another way to off her.  She has a church, too, but it's way down near the Confluence.
St. Jean is a Gothic Church and very beautiful although it has been heavily restored.  The place was pulled about a lot during the Wars of Religion in the late 1500s, a fate suffered by many of the older churches in Lyon. St. Jean has some original Medieval stained glass, and it is glorious!  It is not a very large church compared to some other Gothic structures I've been in, but I liked it a lot.
Then up the funicular.  I was not on my way to Fourviere this time.  When I visited the Gallo-Roman Museum I also entered Notre Dame de Fourviere.  I also learned yesterday that that thing on Fourviere that looks like the Eiffel Tower with a candle stuck in it is actually a smaller copy of said tower. You cannot possibly miss these as they dominate the skyline from its hill, as far as the church goes--meh.  I don't like the Nineteenth Century fake Byzantine.  Inside it's all over mosaics, but they are modern.  I also turned my nose up at Sacre Cour in Paris--just not to my taste.
I was going to a much much older church.  St. Irene has both Merovingian and Carolingian parts, and these are so rare.  They aren't spectacular, and in fact the church is quite small, but I love that they are so old.  The church was easy to find, too.  I'd pictured myself wandering the plateau like I did looking for the Musee des Canuts, but the church was sign posted.
I'd saved the best for last, but I did not realize it until I arrived at the Benedictine abbey church of St. Martin d'Ainay.  This one is on the Presque' Ile about a ten minute walk from Place Bellecour and if you can only do one make this one it.  Unless you hate Romanesque.
The non cruciform basilica dates from the early Twelfth Century, but there has been a Benedictine Abbey here since the Ninth Century, and there might have been an earlier larger church during the Merovingian Period.  The pretty chapel dedicated to Blandina the Martyr (and she may have been buried here) may be a survival of that or Carolingian. The current church is just wonderful--pure Romanesque, but not large or heavy.  The decorations inside (heavily restored as I guess) are lovely and period appropriate.  Apparently the only thing that saved the building from the fury of the French Revolutionaries is that it was a handy place to store grain.
I am taking a vacation from saturated fat today, so it's pasta for dinner. I'll try to do better tomorrow.