Le Teil - Saint-Étienne de Mélas

A church is known in Mélas (now part of Le Teil), located at the Roman road connecting Lyon and Nîmes, since merovingien times. A noble lady named Fredegonde founded a nunnery in Mélas end of the 6th century, dedicated to Saint-Étienne and Saint Saturnin.

Today´s church is younger. It consists out of three parts built in different times.

The oldest part is an octogonal chapel, dated the the 9th/10th century.

The chapel could have been a baptistery or a burial chapel. I tend to the "baptistery" side, though the location is somehow odd, but the place around was sureley different about a thousand years around. The church, that we see now, did not exist.

The octagon is connected to the church. Some small heads guard the entrance to the chapel. Here is one of them.