It is a modest medieval church of Vaucluse, quirky and contemporary with the first crusades.
About fifty kilometers west of Avignon, the Sainte-Trinité church, which gave its name to the town of Saint-Trinit, is inexorably covered with cracks.
It started at the back of the nave before reaching the feet of the facade.
Another ominous crack winds along the north wall of the building, from floor to vault, and brushes the side of a bay window.
Distraught, the town closed the site to the public three months ago, the day after the European Heritage Days.
The town hall is now seeking to raise the amount necessary for the start of restoration work on the monument, one of the oldest on the Albion plateau.
“The building is not yet in danger of collapsing, but you never know. We preferred to take the lead,”
explains Michel Archange, mayor of Saint-Trinit.
At the initiative of the Association of Friends of the Church and Heritage of Saint-Trinit, a crowdfunding campaign was launched in February to find the 23,500 euros needed for a preliminary study before work.
The listed Romanesque church, its slender bell tower and the few reliefs in the nave are not yet out of the woods.
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According to the Heritage Code, a preliminary study must precede any work on a listed monument.
But the estimate, established in April 2021, corresponded to a fortune for the association and for the municipality.
Twenty months later, faced with the progress of the decision cracks, the friends of the Sainte-Trinité church realize the obvious: if it is not restored, the
"marvelous building"
which is the pride of the village will fall sooner or later.
Then came the idea of crowdfunding.
One of the cracks that stretches along the walls of the parish church of Saint-Trinit.
Bruno Rovelli, Association of Friends of the Church and Heritage of Saint-Trinit
Only 1380 euros have so far been collected.
The regional directorate for cultural affairs could subsidize part of the project - on the condition that a first part of the funds is already financed.
The Heritage Foundation should also be approached.
“We do not have the means to ensure the restoration of the church”
, regrets Michel Archange, who is waiting for some patrons in the middle of the musical swinging of the bells of his sheep.
“Our little piece of heritage”
Farmer at the head of some 120 inhabitants of Saint-Trinit, the city councilor of Vaucluse is saddened by the deterioration of the building.
“There were a lot of people who came to see the church.
It's really our little piece of heritage, in the village
.
Apart from visitors and enthusiasts of the association of friends of the church, the building is walled in an almost permanent silence.
Mass would only be held there once or twice a year, at best.
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Listed as a Historic Monument since 1915, the building has been weakened by repeated droughts in recent years.
The church was not the only victim of the sun, whose ardor was felt throughout the small rural town.
“The harvests have been catastrophic due to the last episodes of drought.
There is no hay, there is no grass, the cereal harvests have been very meager, as for lavender, let's not talk about it”,
laments Michel Archange.
The vagaries of the climate are weakening an old building that has been weakened for a long time.
"The dryness of the soil can lead to disorders, but in the case of the very interesting building of Saint-Trinit, it especially came to aggravate several weaknesses of construction",
indicates Jérôme Francou, the architect of the heritage of Lyon solicited by the Friends of Saint -Trinite.
“The church, built on uncertain clay soil, was the subject of very old consolidation works, with in particular the addition of buttresses.
The current building is a stack of various constructions”.
It is not certain that the church will see the appearance of cathedral rebuilders anytime soon.
