Church in a tree

Wikipedia Commons 2 21 Allouvillebellefossechêne

This is Chêne Chappelle, a large tree holding a small church in the French village of Allouville-Bellefosse. Today, worshippers entered the tree for the Assumption of the Virgin. From Garden Design (photo by Ji-Elle/Wikipedia):

Locals will also tell you that the tree is more than 1,000 years old. A sapling during the reign of Charlemagne, by 1035 it was already venerated—in the year that William the Conqueror would become Duke of Normandy, he prayed at its base, according to lore. Scientists will contest that the oak isn't quite as ancient, but their estimated 800 years still qualifies Chêne Chapelle as one of the oldest trees in the country. Either way, in the past several centuries, it's become one of France's most famous trees, and the only one to gather a congregation within its exalted bark...
The chapels were built in 1696, when lightening burned through the tree. Two pious locals—the Abbot du Detroit, and father Du Cerceau—regarded the hollowed trunk as a potential new sort of sanctuary to the Virgin Mary. They built a small alter space, which they would call Notre Dame de la Paix (Our Lady of Peace). Then, an exterior spiral staircase and a second small chapel was added. This was the Chambre de l'Ermite (the Hermit's Room).

"Botanic Notables: Chêne Chappelle"

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townandgownie

I hope the folks going in there pray to the Kebler elves so they’ll drop some nice cookies on them. Otherwise they’re wasting their time.
http://twitter.com/Le_Woodman Le_Woodman

Haha, the chapels were built in 1696, not 1969 !
http://www.facebook.com/HyperionToASatyr Jack Holmes

Enough is ENOUGH! I have had it with these motherfucking churches in this motherfucking tree!
nosehat

So let me get this straight: This weird, old, phallic looking church was built thrusting up into this overgrown bush to help worshipers assume that someone was a virgin.

Sure, that makes sense.
technobach

Someone needs to build a church around the tree.

“And thus God put a church in a tree in a church, and saw that it was good.”
Antinous / Moderator

Am I the only one who started humming Church in a Tree?
bcsizemo

Is the tree still alive? Looking at the trees in the background it seems like spring time or so, and yet this tree has no signs of visible foliage. If it doesn’t produce leaves then I’d say it is dead, which means it is probably the oldest still standing tree in the country, but not necessarily the oldest living tree.
http://twitter.com/GardenDesignMag Garden Design

Le_Woodman Yikes! Thanks so much for catching the typo. Actually, it’s 1696—thanks for catching the typo. It would be hilarious if it had been 1969, but nope, many centuries before!
Brainspore

Security provided by Swiss Guard Family Robinson.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=587026224 John Hudgens

Reminds me of the treehouse I visited last year – BoingBoing ran a story on it: http://boingboing.net/2010/09/27/god-tells-guy-to-bui.html
http://www.facebook.com/people/Spitty-Sumo/100002601661770 Spitty Sumo

i wanna live in it. :3
xwizbt

Sounds like an excellent location for some sort of pagan celebration, actually. I’d join in the rites of spring…
- http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait
  
  thin line between what you’re talking about and Christianity in my book.
PurpleWyrm

Hate to be a pedant (aw shucks, who am I kidding?) but I suspect the pious locals built a small altar space, rather than an ‘alter’ space.

Unless you mean they built something strange and alternative – which I suppose they kinda sorta did.
- http://twitter.com/GardenDesignMag Garden Design
  
  Thanks for the sharp eye (and pointing out the funny alternate meaning!). It’s fixed now. Perhaps I should go serve some editing penance in the tree. :)
  - PurpleWyrm
    
    No probs! Always happy to help out with excessive grammatical pedantry :)
Halloween Jack

This page (in French) shows the tree with leaves, as well as a couple of small shots of the interior. (I would love more detail on this, including whether or not enough people could stand within the tree to make a “congregation.”
Gulliver

“Glory be to the Father, the Son and the…”

TIMBER!

“…Holy Shit!!!”
robuluz

It looks like a thingy!
ROSSINDETROIT

It’s not the only one. There are a number of large trees in Europe that have chapels in them. Recently while surfing Wikipedia for articles on interesting trees I came across a colossal 6,000 year old baobab in South Africa that has a pub inside. Because of course it does.

http://www.bigbaobab.co.za/
http://twitter.com/GardenDesignMag Garden Design

PurpleWyrm, thanks so much! It’s fixed now—it’s funny how these misspellings have funny secondary meanings. Thanks for your sharp eye!

ROSSINDETROIT ,we actually wrote about that as well! We linked to it at the end of the blog post actually. (http://www.gardendesign.com/ideas/botanic-superlatives-largest-baobab-tree-pub) The same writer had a funny line about “What happens in the baobab, stays in the baobab!”