I was left awe struck by the sheer size of the church hidden from view under the gorge. I wanted to show as much as I could in the collage and in one shot you can see the people so small against the pillars.. this was taken from the top floor of the building.
The unique monolithic Église Saint Jean. Saint Jean is called monolithic because it is underground and almost completely carved out of the limestone.
Saint Jean, the largest underground church in Europe, was hewn out of solid rock in the 12th Century. It is massive – 27 meters long, 16 meters wide, and 20 meters high. It is important to understand that this was not just a giant cave that was converted into a church. It is actually carved in the form of a contemporary church – from the great columns to the vaulted nave. This was an enormous endeavor and must have somehow answered an equally enormous need.
The 12th Century Benedictine monks who created the church that we see today did take advantage of caves that already existed. Indeed, there is a baptismal pool in the center of the nave which was carved out of the rock sometime before the 9th Century, perhaps as early as the 4th Century. This is almost certainly an early-Christian remnant because the base is carved in the form of a Greek cross.
The structure is older than this Christian version. At the west end of the nave is a necropolis with eighty stone coffins. This was pre-Christian and features layers of coffins. When one layer was filled and covered with soil, the next layer was filled up. This necropolis was hidden from sight until January 1961. A truck was passing on the adjacent street when the road began to collapse and revealed the necropolis below.
What a lovely collage, so much to see!