Montauriol: Roman Cart Tracks and Sacred Architectural History

If you are planning a stay in Montauriol, you can focus on two areas of interest: the Chemin du fer with its Roman cart tracks, and the architectural history of sacred buildings. The route can be understood through its course and trail markings; for the buildings, the focus is on their dates, architectural styles and details. This lets you plan your trip around the subject that interests you most.

Chemin du fer and Roman Cart Tracks

The Chemin du fer runs through Montauriol and Calmeilles and is marked with white and yellow PR trail markers. These are two distinct pieces of information for planning your route: the course identifies the municipalities it passes through, while the markings help you find your way along the trail. If you are planning a hike, you can take both into account.

The Roman cart tracks along the Chemin du fer are well preserved and visible to the naked eye. The most prominent tracks are 125 to 135 centimetres apart, a range of ten centimetres. This measurement applies to the most prominent tracks, not necessarily to every section. For those interested in archaeological features along a trail, this combines a visible feature with a specific measurement.

Sacred Architectural History and Architecture

The Capella de Sant-Amanç is a Romanesque building dating from the 12th century. Its details include a granite holy-water font. A priest also blesses herbs there every year on Saint-Jean. The building period, material and recurring custom offer different perspectives on the chapel, relating to architectural history, furnishings and local tradition.

The Chapelle Santa Maria del Mas d'en Costa adds another building date for comparison: it was rebuilt around 1850 in the Neo-Romanesque style as a family necropolis. Unlike the Capella de Sant-Amanç, which is described as Romanesque and dated to the 12th century, this building combines a 19th-century reconstruction with Neo-Romanesque design. The term “family necropolis” refers to its purpose as a family burial site.

The Église Saint-Saturnin in Montauriol is a pre-Romanesque church dating from the 10th century and was already in existence in 1074. The 10th-century date and its existence in 1074 refer to different points in time: 1074 is not an additional construction date, but the year by which the church was already in existence.

The church has a single rectangular nave divided crosswise by a double arch, as well as an especially deep semicircular apse. The nave is the main interior space; the apse is the semicircular section of the building. These terms help make the described floor-plan features clear without reducing the church to its date.

For a historical comparison, the dates form a sequence: a 10th-century pre-Romanesque church, a 12th-century Romanesque chapel and a Neo-Romanesque reconstruction around 1850. The information thus distinguishes between construction date, style and later reconstruction.

Discover more destinations: Baho, Villefranche-de-Conflent, Sorède, Les Angles, Ortaffa, Castelnou, Prats-De-Mollo-La-Preste, Los Masos.

For the broader travel overview: Pyrénées-Orientales.