Chapelle Saint Eucher

Nestled in the side of a cliff overlooking the Durance, it is accessible by a difficult to spot at the foot of the steep rock that runs along the National Highway 96 Alpine short trail. Saint Eucherius (or Auquille), bishop of Lyon in the fifth century, was a native of Provence. Wealthy senator of the Roman empire, he followed a spiritual training monastery of St. Honorat de Lérins, then spent part of his life as a hermit in a cave overlooking the chapel. In 434, he was sent for to appoint Archbishop. Indeed, Lyon have lost their bishop despaired of finding a new one, until an angel revealed to a child that would Eucherius. Thereafter, the bishop Eucherius was a great spiritual influence. Eucher Galla and his wife had four children, three of whom were canonized: Consorce holy, holy Tulle, Saint Veran and Salonius. After his departure to Lyon, his wife came to replace and lived in the same cave. The cave where he had retired in meditation and prayer is almost inaccessible in the rock mass.It still contains an ancient stone altar and a statue of the saint. The chapel is built St. Eucherius replacing a first chapel Saint-Auquille cited in a text of 1300. It was rebuilt in 1648 at the initiative of François Margallet, lord of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance. The interior shows a beautiful stone arch and a finely carved altar on which is engraved with the stylized image of a bishop's miter picture. Breakthrough in the small apse in the oven, a single door gives access to the sacristy. The chapel is surrounded by several ruined buildings grouped in a small space. These buildings are those of a former priory, which depended on the monastery of Mont Saint-André-Andaon in Villeneuve-les-Avignon. A Benedictine priory of Saint-Eucherius is mentioned from 1118. Abandoned before 1343, it was rebuilt as a chapel in 1648, and used as a hermitage by the order of the Recollects, between 1713 and 1820. It has since remained vacant.

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