2024

SAINT HELENA'S CHAPEL

Churches cathedrals basilicas and chapels

Legend tells that St. Helena would have stayed on the hill of Hérapel around 293, during which the Romans took part in the places. Once gone, the place was feared for a long time, because of the pagan spirit that existed there. Next to the chapel, oral stories evoke the existence of a niche carved in the rock. It would have sheltered a colossal St. Helena statue in person. Today (and if you think about the inhabitants!), it would still be buried somewhere on the strange Colline Hill… But history does not stop there. Over the centuries, the oratory attracted many pélèrins, but also at the beginning of the twentieth century, at the dawn of the First World War. The chapel known for many phases, alternating destruction and reconstruction. Only its natural environment (a rock-dominated cave) and its so-called miraculous source were preserved. In ancient times, but also today, this water net would have curative vertues, especially in healing of pathologies reaching the eyes (blindness) and hair (baldness). Caution, however, is not potable water.

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