Notre Dame des Anges
Situated on the port d’Amont of Collioure, the church of Notre Dame des Anges (Our Lady of the Angels) expresses the beauty and richness of history in this coastal French village on the southern Mediterranean. The village of Collioure has ancient origins from early Greek and Roman mariners through Kings of Roussillon and Aragon.
Built in 1684, the church replaced the original Sainte Marie Church that stood in the center of the “old town” outside the Royal Castle. Vauban, the King’s military engineer, ordered the destruction of old town in 1672 in order to build a steep slope or glacis that would provide better defensives for the Royal Castle. The parish petitioned the King for eleven years before the first stone of the new church was laid at the foot of the old lighthouse.
The newer Church is Gothic in style with a nave flanked with several chapels and ends with a semi circular-apse. Eventually the lighthouse transformed into a bell tower with a magnificent dome added in 1810. The bell tower topped with an iconic and stylistic dome is made out of a mixture of brick and stucco, displaying a distinctive ochre patina.
The interior has exceptional ornamentation, particularly the wooden altarpiece of the high altar, carved and covered with gold leaf by the Catalan sculptor Joseph Sunyer. Inside the church are elaborate sculptures; more alter sets, sacred objects, and reliquaries adorning the interior from the seventeenth to nineteenth century.
Researched and written by Virginia Vanneman, Graduate Student in the Department of History, University of West Florida.
