Etude archéologique de l'Église Saint-André (monastère de Île-Barbe, Lyon)

"Île-Barbe Abbey is established in a Saône’s island that is situated in the north of the city of Lyon. It seems going back to the beginning of the Dark Ages as Gregoire de Tours suggests it in his writings. Nevertheless the remains of the medieval monastery preserved in the present houses are dated from the Xth-XIIIth centuries. They show an atypical organisation for the roman period, based on four churches scattered in the whole site. The last archaeological researches concerning Saint-André Church built on the rock in the oriental part of the island have revealed a Merovingian funeral setting organised around a possible oratory. These results are questioning the primitive monastic space: at the beginning it may have been structured by the four churches rebuilt later, as it has been seen in other sites (Marmoutiers, Lérins, jura’s monasteries). Building is developing from a single nave and a transept-shaped in the Xth century to a three apses beside in the XIIth-XIIIth centuries and to a south side aisle in the XIVth-XVth centuries. These architectural developments are closely connected with the foundation’s legends that are progressively worked out in the monastery, partly based on Longin’s coming who is buried there with Anne and many oriental saints that have probably been identified with the Merovingian tombs visible from the floor.