Medieval leprosery
Remodeling and highlighting of the Saint-Thomas-Becket Chapel, a former medieval leprosery. Design of an initiation and learning path.
The site of the old St-Thomas-Becket Leprosery currently offers the opportunity of a redevelopment of the old chapel and the creation of an initiation and learning path.
The trail offers interpretative thoughts on the disease and the place of the sick in the middle ages.
Organized along a progression through different themes around ostracism against lepers, the site visit ends with the perspective on the loops of the Seine. The site is accessible for all audiences from a parking area dug into a former road.
The project management team has achieved a design on different topics including the development of furniture of interpretation in which the content of the texts have received the approval of the Scientific Committee.
The route is punctuated with totems engraved with eleven “defends” which punctuate and organize the Lepers in regards to the life of the healthy ones.
The convergence of the two types of access (disabled and hikers) towards an information booth called the Great Departure marks the starting point of the learning path. A precise signage study and the marking of trees allowed the introduction of a concrete outline between the most emblematic areas of the site.
The preservation and transmission of a local tradition of nodes in the trees will be respected.
The design of the furniture is part of the work of the firm, it organizes the path to the rhythm of information and topics.
Finally, a lookout reveals the site in its natural character with a point of view on the loops of the Seine below.
This viewpoint, highlight of a spiritual quest evokes the redemption and the elevation of the soul.
The site received the Heritage and Disability certification. An important work on the topography was undertaken in order to best locate a parking allowing disabled people to enjoy the site.
The shaping of the field was a task performed in partnership with the Regional Service of Archaeology.
Aizier St-Thomas-Becket Chapel is listed as a French Historical National Landmark. It dates from the 12th century. Formerly a place of worship associated with the leper Hospital of the same name, it is today in ruins. After a full search of the site for more than 12 years, the site reveals its importance as evidenced by the discovery of many graves (232). In operation for nearly three centuries, nothing remains of the old Leprosery apart from the chapel.
The chapel is today very fragile despite recent restoration campaigns dating from the end of the last century. The two gutter walls present a significant degradation.
The building was abandoned around the seventeenth century and as a result was served as a stone quarry. The whole of the foothills that flank the unique ship disappeared and only remain the first bedrocks. The restorations carried out by non-profit organizations present construction errors and architectural restoration contradictions.
The restoration project proposed and conducted by our firm is a project of crystallization of the ruins.
The degradations are largely due to water infiltrations in the cut-off gutter walls. The stagnation and penetrations cause disruptions to the masonry.
Our proposal is to remove a portion of past restorations and to renew the physiognomy of cut-off walls to be in line with the spirit of a ruin.
The choice of the use of lead to cover the upper end of the cut-off walls allows the creation of a watertight barrier at the top, guaranteeing a maximum degree of construction upholding. The coatings have been fully reinstated. The angles of the bedside received four metal clips to provide a proper bearing to the structures located at the corners (one-time internal chaining) in lieu of the missing foothills.
The project’s architectural driver is the highlighting of the exposed foothills by a "hallow" restoration of the removed structure.
Some blocks of stone of the flat twin bays were replaced and the base of the foothills was reinforced.
All elevations have been re-coated and parts of the lateral wall which were in a crumbling state were preserved as-is, under a merlon of Earth with the installation of a protective film.
