The forgotten cathedral

INA00261

Note

The forgotten cathedral

Collection title

Mare nostrum

INA00261

Source

INA (FR)

First broadcast date

10/08/1976

Production year

1976

Abstract

Issue on an unknown period of early middle Ages: the Saracen invasions beyond the Pyrenees to the Rhone in the early eighth century, are fairly well accepted by local Occitan people; and for this region of Septimanie, the enemy would rather be the Frankish Carolingian tribes from the North. From these 40 years of peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims, remain only a few headstones in Montpellier and a forgotten cathedral on the banks of a lagoon: Port Sarrazin.

Type

video

Production companies

France 3 Marseille - Coproduction
(ONCIC) - Coproduction

Broadcaster

FTV - F3

Audiovisual form

Magazine

Primary theme

Arab and muslim worlds

Secondary themes

Historical heritages / Latin and oriental christendom
Tourism and cultural sites / Architecture
Art, Culture and Knowledge / Fine arts / Sculpture

Credits / Cast

Ordines Jacques - Director

Period of events

From 500 to 1000

Map locations

France - South West - Narbonne
France - South West - Toulouse
France - South West - Montpellier
France - South West - Carcassonne
France - South West - Frontignan

Original language

French

Media running time

12m21

Additional information

Program co-produced by FR3 Marseille and ONCIC in Algiers, Algerian producer Mounir Bouchenaki

Context

The forgotten Cathedral, Marseille France 3

Cyril Isnart

The history of Muslim invasions of the southern territories of France, which occurred between the late antiquity and the early middle Ages, is the subject of this documentary that delves into a story without material trace, but where the legendary is the only receptacle in 1976, when the film is produced by FR3, a public French television with regional vocation. Coming from Spain, the Muslims crossed the Christian city of Narbonne, but landed in Toulouse and settled in the region of Montpellier, the Roman Septimania region, and continued their conquest toward the Provence and the North. Their presence will only last 40 years and left only little material and cultural trace in the south.

All the pictures show the remains of Roman, Gallo-Roman or medieval eras and the voiceover speculates a serene and peaceful cohabitation "Occitan" and Muslims "between Mediterranean", which was undermined by other enemies, coming from the north, the Carolingian Franks. They marked the landscape and regional memory (William of Aquitaine and his sanctuary of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert) by creating a legendary of Muslims to fight, the "Saracens", who were considered as enemies rejecting the religion and culture of the new Frankish nation. Churches became fortresses for interior defense against the dangers of maritime invasions. However, the cathedral of Port-Sarrazin remained the ultimate evidence of the short coexistence between Christians and Muslims in the south of France.

The tone of the documentary cultivates the mystery of this early period, but also highlights the historic character of the story, by mentioning dates, places and characters in a description that touches both the lost memory of past events and a missed contemporary legacy of a history characterized by a serene coexistence between two great religions of the Mediterranean.

Reinaud J. T. 1836, the Invasions of Sarrazins in France and from France in Savoy, in Piedmont and Switzerlanden: during the 8th, 9th and 10th Century, Paris, Vve Dondey-Dupre.

Basset K.-L. 2006, the legendary buckweat in France (configuration and history of a national story, XIX and XX Century), Grenoble, Rhodanien and Alpine center of Ethnology.