Saint Peter Chapel
The Saint Peter Chapel located on the harbor seawall of Villefranche-sur-Mer is a fourteenth century Romanesque chapel dedicated to Saint Peter, as the patron saint of fishermen. The chapel fell into disuse in the eighteenth century and became a storage site for the next 150 years for fishermen’s nets and tackle. In the 1950s, writer, filmmaker, and visual artist Jean Cocteau convinced the local fishermen to let him restore the building and decorate the interior chapel walls with his drawings inspired by stories of the well-known and beloved saint.
Cocteau’s 1957 concept transformed the chapel back into an esoteric place of reverence dedicated to the life of this twelfth apostle. The artist created five tableaus that inscribed every wall space of the interior with expressive pastel drawings with contrasting bold outlines of geometric patterns and stylistic figures depicting bizarre, almost hallucinatory scenes from the life of Saint Peter, floating eyes, bodies, angels, fish and images of fishermen and gypsies.
A painting on the inside of the entrance door reveals a strange image of the Apocalypse with cryptic symbols. The most prominent mural depicts St. Peter walking on water and covers the entire rear nave of the chapel. In front of this central mural is a carved trapezoidal stone alter mounted with an iron cross. Today the building is almost exclusively a museum space to showcase Cocteau’s masterpiece, Villefranche’s most celebrated artist. The chapel holds one religious service a year for the festival of Saint Peter in late June.
Researched and written by Virginia Vanneman, Graduate Student in the Department of History, University of West Florida.
