L’image de Santa Maria citra Montes à Saint-Nizier de Lyon : le rôle de la composition de l’espace ecclésial dans l’organisation d’un culte

Abstract

According to a bull of Innocent IV, present in Lyons for the Ecumenical Council of Lyons, the image of «Our Lady on this side of the Alps» was brought to Lugdunum by Saint Pothin, the first bishop of the city. What kind of image? There is still a late statue, hidden during the religious wars, then found near the crypt in the 19th century, and a keystone (during the 15thcentury) probably representing this image. Minutes of the visit of the 14th-15th century clearly describe the organisation of the space of the shrine whose archaeology has shown that it had not been modified since the High Middle Ages: crypt at the crossroads, altar on the crypt (in the Paleo-Christian way), the main altar, the tombs of the bishops of the sixth century and, at the bottom of the apse, the image of the Virgin. This image was both an object of worship and the object of a pilgrimage of healing. After the destruction of the religious wars, the statue was moved to the south arm of the transept and became the cult image of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Grace. The upheaval of the spatial organisation is heavy with meaning: loss of relationship with the history of the early Church of Lyon and refocusing on the life of the brotherhoods, but with a primacy given to the image which is not enclosed in an autonomous chapel, but remains directly related to the sanctuary space