Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: Oloron-Sainte-Marie

The portal of "Saint-Croix", a church that is even older than the former cathedral "Sainte-Marie". From 1080 on the Viscounts of Béarn had erected a strong fortification around a castle and the church "Saint-Croix". Upto 1858 two seperate towns existed on both sides of the "Gave d’Oloron". Since then both parts form "Oloron-Sainte-Marie". The church has wonderful Romanesque capitals, but unfortunately I did not find the light switch..

Launderettes are meeting and melting points. The weary traveller will meet locals. There is an hour to spend at least, waiting for the washing machine. Talk is cheap. For the tourist all the locals have interesting stories to listen to and for the locals this stranger in the launderette is interesting. Here even the washing powder was free of charge (Lessive Gratuite)!

The construction of the church was started by Gaston IV, Viscount of Béarn (aka "le Croisé") in 1102. After he returned from the First Crusade Gaston IV created a kind of infrastructure along the Via Tolosana and "Sainte-Marie" was part of it. Only some parts of the church date back to the 12th century, as during the Albigensian Crusade, the church got severely damaged. Most important is the Romanesque portal - and I had time to take many photos, that I will upload later in another context. Here is only one detail from the archivolt, where lots of people prepare a dinner. The right guy carries a huge salmon over his shoulder, while the right person is seated and seems to think about the recipe. The salmon is obviously fresh and very slick, as the guy holds the fish with a trident.

Finally I reached Oloron-Sainte-Marie and saw the former cathedral on the other side of the valley. The construction of the church was by the same Gaston IV, Viscount of Béarn (aka "le Croisé"), whom I had "met" some hours ago in Lacommande. I had visited Oloron-Sainte-Marie already some years ago, and decided to stay a day here.

A former church. Impressing. We stayed in the little house to the left.

...... a cavalier is riding over somebody on the ground. This may depict the "Matamoro", what is Saint Jaques in his role of slaughtering the muslims in Spain, leading the "Reconquista". The "Matamoro" was a very popular figure in spanish...

..there is a lion, eating up somebody. The the lower part of the victim´s body is hanging out of the lion´s mouth....

...... then there is the "trumeau", the center-pillar. This pillar ends into to figures, that seem to hold the whole structure on their shoulders. Not like the classic caryatid, that does that elegantly, these two really seem to suffer under the weight - and their are tied up. They stand back to back, mouths wide open, knees bowing - their hands tied together. These two figures are a political demonstration......