The poetics of 10 abandoned churches

1 "Mother of all wisdoms"

Abbey of the XI-XVII centuries.

New Aquitaine region (France) The non-practicing French photographer and graphic designer Francis Meslet, a non-practicing Christian, set out to portray abandoned places of worship.

"The decline of religion and loss of faith is a fact in our society," he reasons.

From this interest has emerged the book 'Abandoned Churches - Places of worship in ruins', published by Editorial Jonglez, which has received the honorable mention at the International Photography Awards.

There are 287 photos of 37 places, in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Portugal.

We publish 10 of those portraits with the sole condition of not offering exact locations, to preserve what remains of looting and pillaging.

In France alone, and in 2019 alone, the Observatory for Religious Heritage counted no less than 103 churches closed or threatened with closure, 65 victims of acts of vandalism and 20 destroyed by fire.

And about 20 have been demolished since 2000. "They have a poetic touch," Meslet emphasizes.

Like this figure that he has called 'Mother of all wisdoms', and that he found, besieged by rubble, in an abbey in France.

© Couverture_MESLET_JONGLEZ_01 / Cover Die Porzellanheiligen / Kirche 13., 14., 16. und 19. Jahrhundert, Frankreich, Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

© Francis Meslet

2 "Fascination"

Catholic college and chapel from the 19th century.

Center-Loire Valley Region (France) There is a lot of research behind every photographic road trip Meslet undertakes, reading articles about religious heritage in danger and about associations that defend it.

The Internet is a great tool.

Another is Google Earth.

After taking the images for his book, he asked a group of professionals, his "viewers", to describe them.

"I gave three to each one, from three different sites, with no additional information. His mission was to write about 20 lines on each photograph."

Like this one, entitled 'Fascination' and taken in a 19th century Catholic school and chapel, in the Center-Loire Valley Region (France).

© MESLET_JONGLEZ_02 / Seite 25 Reiche mir den Himmel / Kirche 13. Jahrhundert, Frankreich, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

© Francis Meslet

3The Saints of Faience

Church of the XIII, XIV, XVI and XIX centuries.

Region of New Aquitaine (France) "The faithful left after the service and never returned. Did they know it was the last mass?" Meslet wonders before this image taken in this French church.

"Everything seems to be perfectly in order. The tired wooden and straw chairs hold their position as best they can, barely shaken by the memory of the behinds that have risen from them [...]".

The photographer observes an organ "with loose pedals" on the right and "the milky-gray wooden pulpit" on the left.

"The choir is long and tall, accentuating the feeling of heavy emptiness. Large windows with simple stained glass let in abundant light [...] At the top, four saints in faience, perched on their pedestal, challenge each other with their gaze. Juana de Arco blond by the sun, it must be said that it burns around here. San Martín has preferred to keep his cloak to protect himself from the celestial ablutions, Saint Rita, desperate, tightens the black veil that covers her hair. Undoubtedly, the doves they seem to have a passion for Christ. Of all the perches that the choir has, they prefer to meditate on the divine head. Many of them have found calm and relief in it, "he writes.

© MESLET_JONGLEZ_03 / Seite 13 Die Kirchen ziehen sich zurück, um zu sterben / Kapelle 13. Jahrhundert, Italien, Piemont.

© Francis Meslet

4 "Pásame el cielo"

Church of the XIII century.

Burgundy (France) The teacher and novelist Sylvie Robic contemplated the image of this 13th century church, located in Burgundy (France), and wrote these words: "My loneliness is in the center of my church. Although, on her side, the Little Juana makes many useless efforts. The two of us, still standing, while everything collapses. Juana protests vehemently, but the bishopric delays and the municipal team asks questions. About the need for such complicated and costly shoring. A possible transformation of the place. About my probable closure. My loneliness in the center of my church, terribly obstructed, darkened, overwhelmed by its materiality, nevertheless arms itself with patience. I calmly wait for the advent of a naked faith to arrive. And with her, the light. "

© MESLET_JONGLEZ_04 / Seite 79 Gegensätze / Kapelle 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, Frankreich, Okzitanien.

© Francis Meslet

5 "The churches hide to die"

Chapel of the XIII century.

Piedmont (Italy) "First thing in the morning, on a rural road in Italy, I went to the first place of the day", Meslet begins in his description of this 13th century chapel, which he has entitled 'The churches hide to die '.

"I got up very early because I had to take advantage of the last moments of the night to enter an old abandoned psychiatric hospital. The access was quite exposed and complicated. Suddenly it appeared on the side of the road. Lonely. Completely neglected. Only the bell tower and his wobbly cross protruded from the huge bush that had swallowed him up. I parked my car immediately across the road, next to a field, and slowly approached. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. What a photo. Proud, still standing despite the trials that time and men have subjected it. I remembered St. Paul's Chapel in Manhattan. The same feeling mixed between pride and desolation, "he says.

© MESLET_JONGLEZ_05 / Seite 135 Das Fundament des Glaubens / Kapelle 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, Frankreich, Grand Est. © Francis Meslet

6 "The passion of the sad"

Chapel of the 18th-19th centuries.

Lombardy (Italy) The painter, decorator and writer Nicolas Hamm, another of the "spectators" recruited by Francis Meslet, describes his feelings when he saw the image of this Lombard chapel from the 18th and 19th centuries: "There ... We are surrounded, immersed in frescoes, rather, between soft frames, baroque cutouts, but with a 'kitsch' touch ... The general atmosphere is yellow ... yellowish, but not yellowed ... The altar ... there ... also 'framed', it seems to be made of trompe l'oeil, "Trap-matter" optical effect in details ... The benches so well placed and so terrifyingly silent. The floor dotted with specks of dirt contrasts with the stained glass stains, 'Rococoesque', weaving the slow and diffuse spark, its own trace ... , at the weight assumed ... by this ceiling of precious eloquence ... Jesus Christ, blue in front, welcomes us with a spontaneous and fervent mannerism, albeit a bit simple. The empty niches stare at each other, glances in corners. Decorated with gibberish

stucco, exaggerated and present frames, centralizing the beauty scenes.

Choice… Pretentious in finish, yet so well preserved… The beveled shafts of its columns and a deceived eye again… Here too, rather truncated perspective… totally reconstructed lost point.

In the lower part of the walls, the salty crusts tell us the misery of the state of capillarity ... moral at least ... A bar, crossed, vaulted, on the exacerbated bedroom, a postmodern fairy thread will find its way ... The ground languishes while the ceiling is covered with stars… ". © MESLET_JONGLEZ_06 / 155 Wie lange schon? / Kloster 17. und 19. Jahrhundert, Italien, Umbrien. © Francis Meslet

7 "The foundations of the faith"

Chapel of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Great East Region (France) "The old hospital seems deserted. After passing through a small portal that overlooks the street, I immediately located the chapel in the middle of the place thanks to the characteristic shape of its domed bell tower. A door seems to be open. ".

Thus begins Meslet's description of this chapel in the Great East region of France.

The triumphal arch marks the entrance to the semicircular apse.

A Christ "wrapped in divine light seems to want to free himself from weightlessness."

At the foot of the altar, a pile of stacked benches that prevent any bypass.

"Looks like they were quarantined there."

Going down the three steps that separate the choir from the church, a beaten earth floor "gutted by a large wound covered in rubble and decayed wood particles."

The carpentry has been torn off and a part has been thrown away.

"This is how the hospital chapels agonize? Are they in turn affected by the evil of the residents who have come to pray to be cured? No. Multiple fluorescent catheters dot the walls and suggest the injection of a vaccine into the heart of the stone. I will visit this patient again to inquire about his health, "he writes.

© MESLET_JONGLEZ_07 / Seite164 Mutter aller Erkenntnis / Abtei 11., 12., 13. und 17. Jahrhundert, Frankreich, Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

© Francis Meslet

8 "How long has it been?"

Monastery of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

Umbria (Italy) Frédérique Villemur, writer and art historian, was inspired by the contemplation of this image corresponding to a monastery from the 17th to 19th centuries, in the Italian region of Umbria: "[...] The murmur The foliage stirred the air without the wind having anything to do with it. A column of ants broke the line. Nothing seemed to be in place. [...] The earth began to shake gently, regularly, in the same direction , diagonally, then up and down with greater firmness, with greater force. She spoke an immemorial, audible and indiscernible language. When her signals became visible and understandable without us knowing who was speaking to her, unless it was by successive waves, we listened without see what space it was going to unfold in. An immense web of running lines on the ground began to creep up the walls of the buildings like a secret sap seeps under a second skin, spinning faster than a spider, making larger holes.

randes as the distance between shocks shortened.

Each palace, each church suddenly spoke its own language, unheard of, never heard, which showed in what body they had been built.

Everyone, in his skeleton, vibrated with a different skin.

A powerful Saint Christopher, carrying the Savior on his shoulders, remained locked in a niche in the wall.

From the top, the light penetrated through the gap in the sunken roof.

The broken tiles cracked under the steps, the beams mingled with the kneelers.

Next to a light bulb hanging from the ceiling of the church, a wooden skirt vertically defied gravity [...] ”© MESLET_JONGLEZ_08 / Seite 170 Faszination / Katholisches Kolleg und Kapelle 19. Jahrhundert, Frankreich, Center-Val de Loire.

© Francis Meslet

9 "The punishment"

Crypt of the 20th century.

Liguria (Italy) "The wound of a long crack opens up a light gray background. On this, and for the gaze of the faithful, an altar installed on a plinth highlights a deathly wounded silhouette, the left half of its base was sunken. Ironic because, like the cross of a viewfinder that could well be that of a camera or a cannon, a small square with gold edges frames a cross with equal arms. Higher up, a crucifix comments on the scene [...] " .

The philosopher Jean-Pierre Marchand painstakingly describes this 20th century image, a space "without miracles or mysteries."

At the exit, "we are accompanied by two large orthodox white crosses that form a corridor. Each one stands out against the yellow color of two large stained glass windows that, both equally, have two broken sections in the shape of a ray of light that show the profane world well. At ground level, to the right, a yellow frieze remains intact while his brother, in the left stained glass window, has lost his glass and color ".

© MESLET_JONGLEZ_09 / Seite 187 Die Strafe / Krypta 20. Jahrhundert, Italien, Ligurien.

© Francis Meslet

10 "Surrender to the world of oblivion and general absence"

Convent and crypt from the 14th century.

Lisbon Region (Portugal) "I have already seen that image in my dreams, not exactly this one, but a similar image", the musician Michel Cloup starts his text.

And he continues: "I had a Go-Pro camera in hand, I was making a kind of documentary that I would upload to my YouTube channel, in a future that seemed distant. I was teaching children and adolescents places they did not know, vestiges of a past civilization , from an earlier era: fast food restaurants, gigantic factories, slaughterhouses, television studios, shopping malls, places of worship. All were damaged, half destroyed and abandoned. This one had been the victim of a flood. Afterwards, he filmed his reactions and We were chatting. That day, none of those young people wanted to believe me when I told them about the different religions, their rituals and the crimes committed in their name. They got scared and asked me to leave as soon as possible. "

© MESLET_JONGLEZ_10 Bei offenem Grabe / Kloster und Krypta 14. Jahrhundert, Portugal, Lissabon.

© Francis Meslet