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La Chapelle en Ruine _ The Vault in Ruin
Gressey, Yvelines, France
June 24, 2010, 20:00 UTC
© 2010 Denis Gliksman, All Rights Reserved.
I have always been intrigued by a painting, naive style, in the town hall showing a strange building along a small vault in the middle of the fields. The strange building seems to have been a monastery, then a boarding school of young girls, that explains its nickname of Brood. It was given up in 1881 and have been destroyed a century ago. It looks like even more strange because it seems quiet big compared to the village's size. Nobody alive has actually seen it.
Except for the painting and 2 photographs there is nothing left, only the ruins of the vault, hardly hurt by the 1999 gale, and disappearing under 2 meters high nettles and brambles. The old picture shown at the bottom of the panorama comes from a good book on Gressey's history written by Pierre Chauvin.