La Miséricorde Chapel

Description

Also named Immaculée-Conception Chapel, La Miséricorde Chapel stands at the southern entrance of the village, in the Pous neighbourhood. With its Gothic façade, it is also one of Peille’s oldest chapels: it dates from the 15th century, if an inscription carved into its walls is to be believed.

The building is currently still standing and was converted into a Genoese oil mill; this conversion dates from 1767, a date engraved in the dimension stone of the left entrance door jamb. The heavy vaulted floor was built to adapt the building to the needs of the oil mill. The waterwheel is located downhill from here. It houses an oil mill and a distillery dating from 1947.

This is, in fact, the first chapel of the Black Penitents, who later went on to occupy the former Saint Sébastien Chapel, currently used as the townhouse.

In its current condition, the Miséricorde Chapel still features, engraved in its carved stones on top of the entrance door, the following inscription:

MISERICORDIA ÆDIFICAT IN CŒLIS – Ps. 88
CONCEPTIONI BEATÆ MARIÆ VIRG

On either side of this door, at a height of approximately one meter, square windows let in the sunlight at dusk to light the inside of the building. Dimension stones form the lintel of these windows, each of which bears an engraved inscription; on the one to the left, one can read: LEMOSINA PER LI POVERI, and on the one to the right: DE LA MISERICORDIA

These two openings were sealed when the building was abandoned and reopened in 1949 during the oil mill conversion works.

Inside, under the round window, on the eastern side, under a thick layer of mortar, a dimension stone bearing eight engraved lines was discovered; it was returned to the façade, beneath the small œil-de-bœuf opening.