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This chapel was originally intended to become the chapel deprived of the local residents of the Tower of Puddle.
Been born at the very beginning of the sixties of the will of a of Nice banker, Jean Martinon, this lot should shelter a population of artists, but this project of "ideal town" will be abandoned to the death of his(her) designer. A little bit before its(his) disappearance it(he) had appealed to the poet Jean Cocteau, who, helped by the architect Jean Triquenot, conceives the plans and the decoration of the chapel.
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The death of the poet in October, 1963, leaves this unfinished work, and it is his spiritual son, Edouard Dermit who, according to boxes préparatoiresw of Jean Cocteau, executes the internal decoration, while the ceramist Roger Pelissier realizes the cover of the ground of the chapel.
The octagonal monument is put around by a gallery of wills green. The internal frescoes illustrate the subject of the Passion of the Christ. In the Last Supper surmounting the axial door, the guests can know, among the apostles, Jean Cocteau's self-portrait and that of the comedian Jean Marais, friendly of the poet. The traditional scenes, arrest, crucifixtion, resurrection of the Christ, get involved at presentations more enigmatiques, as these chanting hieratic great men, and portrait of orants. A second subject is recurring in the decoration of the chapel, that of the crusades, and more particularly that of the order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, the cross of Jerusalem, symbol of the crusaders, and everywhere present : outside, surmounting the dome, in frescoes, on stained glasses and altar stone where one can read the currency(slogan) of the crusaders : "God the veult".
The Chapel Our Lady of Jerusalem stays the ultimate message of the poet, where, in one incomparable site, it(he) manages to marry nature and mysticism, symbolism and coolness of the figurative scenes.
Fréjus
belongs to the national network of Cities and Country of Art and History which undertake to value and to present their patrimony notably through visits led(driven) by guides - conférienciers approved by the Ministry for the Arts and Communications. Information with the office of Tourism of Fréjus or the service animation of the Patrimony (+ 33 (0)4.94.51.34.31 or + 33 (0)4.94.52.15.78.).
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