France - 19 Chapaize

10/19, Day 10 of tour Chapaize is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It features a Romanesque church built in the 11th century, in lombard style, surrounded by stone-built houses with the typical covered galleries of this region with a 16th-century watch tower. In the hamlet of Lancharre, there is a church of the 12th century, remains of a canonnesse's monastery. The Church of St. Martin of Chapaize is the most beautiful building of all the Burgundian village. Old passage on the initiatory path of Saint-Jacques de Compostela, the church building was built in the first half of the eleventh century. Listed building, the church is now one of the oldest Romanesque of Burgundy. It is the only remnant of an ancient priory founded in the tenth century and formerly dependent on the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Chalon. Campanile of over thirty-five meters height does not lack elegance, as its very slender nave. The building has undergone some changes in the sixteenth century, including the opening of a large bay in the western facade, in the early Romanesque style. Inside, one can admire one of the oldest statue columns known in the West. Also dating from the eleventh century, the Castle of Uxelles is installed at the tip of a spur which dominates the surrounding area. Repeatedly altered and damaged the building today consists of a rectangular main building and two wings at right angles. This is unfortunately a private property that can not be visited. Around Chapaize lie a large state and communal forest and two ponds. In the 4 hamlets of Chapaize (Bessuge, Gemaugue, Lancharre and Chapaize), there are several laundrettes which were still used at the beginning of the 1950s.