St-cyr-au-mont-d-or - sommaire

1 - 0-1 : A city of history 2 - 1-1 : Old pictures of the square 3 - 1-2 : The case of the Gayet ladies 4 - 2-1 : Le Mont d'Or, gold mountain ? 5 - 2-2 : Le Mont d'Or, water mountain ? 6 - 3-1 : Description of the castle 7 - 4-1 : The old church 8 - 4-2 : The old cemetery 9 - 5-1 : Learn more about the keep 10 - 5-2 : The stones of the keep 11 - 6-1 : Threshing and treading on the suel 12 - 6-2 : Taxes from 16th and 18th century 13 - 7-1 : The mission cross 14 - 7-2 : Old pictures of the square 15 - 8-1 : Coffee shops 16 - 8-2 : Vineyards in St-Cyr 17 - 9-1 : The south gate and the quarter below the castle 18 - 9-2 : Quarrying 19 - 10-1 : House of justice 20 - 10-2 : City before the Revolution 21 - 11-1 : The use of the castle 22 - 12-1 : Discover the presbytery garden 23 - 12-2 : Fruit tree crops 24 - 13-1 : Obedience house 25 - 13-2 : Pope Clement V in Saint-Cyr 26 - 14-1 : Reuse of Gallo-Roman stones 27 - 14-2 : Stories and details 28 - 15-1 : Priest Ranchon chronicle 29 - 15-2 : Past plagues 30 - 16-1 : Education before 1900 31 - 16-2 : 1911, Republic's school 32 - 17-1 : Views on the castle 33 - 17-2 : Saint-Cyr and Sainte-Juliette church

0-1 : A city of history

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Front of Gallo-Roman sarcophagus in situ – Focale des Monts d'Or

There are still many traces of the Gallo-Roman presence in Saint-Cyr: the Mont d'Or aqueduct runs through the commune over a distance estimated at 4,360 metres ; Gallo-Roman stone blocks, some with epitaphs, have been discovered, as well as a few bronzes; Gallo-Roman tiles have been found in several places ; A Gallo-Roman epitaph has been discovered in the hamlet of La Chaux (villa Calciensis) ; the vines that dominated the lower reaches of the Ruisseau d'Arche and the Ruisseau Pomey in St-Cyr, still referred to by the ancients as « Roman vines », suggest that vines first appeared in Roman times.

It was not until 984 that the name St-Cyr first appeared in the possessions of the Chapter of St Jean and the Canons, Counts of Lyon.

The castle was built from 1150 onwards, and in 1306 it welcomed Pope Clement V, who stayed there for a few weeks. In 1642, Louis XIII was received at St-Cyr, in whose honour a grand celebration was held at Les Ormes.

St-Cyr remained the property of the chapter of St Jean until the Revolution of 1789, when it became one of the 15 cantons of Lyon in 1790.

Chronology of key events at St-Cyr

984 : St-Cyr is named for the first time in the possessions of the Metropolitan Church of Lyon : ecclesia Sancti Cirici

1150 : Construction of the castle. The castellan was responsible for defending the inhabitants and administering the justice system, which came under the jurisdiction of the Canons and Counts of Lyon. The last lord mansionary of St-Cyr castle was the Cha-noine Prangins de Pingon from 1753 to 1790.

1306 : Pope Clement V visits the Château de St Cyr from 12 February to 6 March.

1341 : Construction of the first hermitage on Mont Cindre, together with a chapel dedicated to Our Lady Queen of Heaven.

1422 : following their victory over the troops of Charles VII, the Anglo-Burgundians invade the Mont d'Or. The castle of St-Cyr was pillaged and burnt.

1573 : « St-Cire au mont d'or, the church in a fort, is situated at the foot of the Mont-d'or, abundant in good wines, some wheat, hay and fruit and the most beautiful and richest quarries for extracting large ashlars, for making tables, steps and other architectural works in the whole of the Lyonnais and there are several beautiful fountains at Messieurs de St-Jehan » (Nicolas de Nicolay, Description de Lyon et du Lyonnais).

1642 : Royal visit by Louis XIII on 2 July. A grand celebration is held at Les Ormes.

1720 : In the census, St-Cyr was the second largest commune after Lyon. There was 1 fire for every five people. Lyon : 7,780; St-Cyr : 406.

1790 : On 25 February, St-Cyr became one of the fifteen cantons of Lyon.

1790 : In January, the first mayor elected by the municipality was Jean Loras de la Croix-des-Rameaux.

1793 : On 10 October, 200 Lyonnais counter-revolutionaries led by General de Précy, fleeing repression, burst into St-Cyr. They clashed with the Republican army at Les Ormes. The municipality counted 15 dead, who were buried on the spot.

In December, Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or became Montcindre until the Consuls' decree of 9 Fructidor de l'An IX (1801), which reintroduced the old names. The commune was the seat of the canton municipality, which included Saint-Rambert l'ile Barbe, Collonges, Caluire-et-Cuire, St-Didier, Ecully and Dardilly.

1836 : By royal decree (Louis-Philippe) dated 15 February, it was decided to grant the request of the municipality of St-Rambert-l'Ile Barbe to annex part of the municipality of St-Cyr, which lost the territories of Vacques and La Sauvagère, as well as two ports on the Saône... The town council resigned in protest.

1869 : Inauguration of Place de la République, originally named Place Neuve.

1872 : blessing of the new church of St Cyr and St Juliette.

1895 : Construction of the bell tower of the new church.

1898 : The tramway arrives in St Cyr. It ran until 1950, when it was replaced by trolley buses.

1906 : Discussions about electric lighting for the town.

1911 : the Bourg secular school is inaugurated on 27 August by Jean-Victor Augagneur, deputy for the Rhône and Minister of Public Works.

1913 : application for the feudal tower and old bell tower to be listed as historic monuments.

1931 : Installation of the first petrol pump.

1942 : the Ecole Nationale de Police moves into the former Ursu-lines boarding school

1952 : inauguration of Louis Touchagues' fresco in the Mont-Cindre chapel

1966 : On 2 July, the Town Hall moved into the house donated in a will by Jean and Catherine Reynier, who had no heirs.

1969 : Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or becomes part of the Lyon urban community.

1984 : Saint-Cyr celebrates its millennium

1990 : inauguration of the multi-purpose hall at La Source and installation of the library at La Source.

2003/2005 : construction of the new Champlong public primary schools.

2005 : during the restoration of the Salle des Vieilles Tours, 15th-century frescoes were discovered that had been badly damaged by 18th-century staking.

2010 : Twinning with the village of Bolano in Liguria (Italy)

2015 : Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or becomes part of the Lyon Metropolitan Area

2021 : Inauguration of the new Louisa Siefert Cultural Centre, near the Old Towers.

2023 : Restoration and reopening to the public of the rock garden at the Mont Cindre hermitage.

St-cyr-au-mont-d-or - sommaire

1-1 : Old pictures of the square

République square, formerly Neuve square, and the tramway - early 20th century - Internet

République square, formerly Neuve square, and the tramway - town hall album - Focale des Monts d'Or        

République square, the old Neuve square, the tramway and the coalman's cart - Yves Dupré la Tour, 2011

Diligence and public weight - Dr Gabourd, 1967

The school, Mont Cindre and the counter - town hall album - Focale des Monts d'Or

St-cyr-au-mont-d-or - sommaire

1-2 : The case of the Gayet ladies

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Gayet Ladies' House - Dr Gabourd, 1967    

It's 1860, the height of summer, the morning of 14 August at around 6am, in Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or, a town of around 1,750 inhabitants at the time, on the square in front of you. It had been a very hot summer, with temperatures of up to 38°C, and a thunderstorm had broken out during the night, with lightning and thunder, dumping downpours of water on the thousands of people (between 30 and 40 thousand), some of whom had come from Lyon and the Croix Rousse for several days. They all wanted to see the scaffold raised in the Place Neuve, a square that had just been created and levelled after the ditch under the fortified castle had been filled in. Everywhere, people had invaded the space, balconies and terraces were taken by storm, as were the trees whose branches gave way under the weight ; the fields were ravaged, the crops plundered. Everyone is drenched in rain ; the inns are packed, with hawkers selling lemonades and cakes. The crowd piled up to the right of the scaffold undulated above the bayonets of the infantrymen. Such was the mood that morning, when the convoy carrying the condemned prisoners and their executioners, as well as three chaplains, arrived at the stroke of six o'clock, escorted by gendarmes and preceded by dragoons from the imperial army. The fact was that the condemned men were from St-Cyr, and that the crime they had committed would not soon be forgotten by the population.

The murder of the Gayet ladies

The Gayet ladies at dinner - Dr Gabourd, 1967

On 14 October 1859, an impressive thunderstorm broke out at the stroke of 7pm, the traditional dinner time for the Gayet ladies, grandmother Marie (72), mother Jeanne-Marie (39) and daughter Pierrette (13). The first two are widows, living quietly on a farm, with good reputations and a nice sum of money, around 60,000 francs. Everyone knew everyone else, everything was known in the village. On 16 October, a neighbour noticed that the shutters had remained closed. Inside the little house in Canton Charmant, now rue Ampère, the house was a mess, the beds had not been slept in and it was a bloodbath. The three women had been murdered with a stone, a knife or a doloire, a kind of hatchet with a handle, used on vines. The coroner dated the crime to 14 October, just after supper.

The police soon identified three suspects, three St-Cyrots : Jean Joannon, Jean-François Chrétien and Antoine Deschamps. The first was accused of being the instigator. Joannon had worked for the Gayet ladies on their farm and had asked for Jeanne-Marie's hand in marriage, but she turned him down. As for Chrétien and Deschamps, they were the ladies' closest heirs. On 10 March 1860, Chrétien confessed everything. This confession was amplified by huge inconsistencies in the schedules of the three suspects and by the discovery of watches that had belonged to the Gayet ladies, sold by Chrétien to a watchmaker in Vaise.

Arrested, the three accomplices and the wives of Deschamps and Chrétien appeared before the Lyon Assize Court in mid-June 1860. 82 people testified before the jury. The guilty parties blamed each other. In July, the three men were sentenced to death. On 14 August 1860, at around 6am, they were guillotined in the town square of St-Cyr in front of thousands of people who had come to witness the macabre spectacle. « There were more people there than at a fashion show », Deschamps was quoted as saying, while Joannon still maintained his innocence.

The parish priest at the time, François Bailly, accompanied the suspects throughout the trial and until their death, because they were his parishioners and he knew their families well. He ended his term of office at St-Cyr weakened and made ill by the affair.

The profession of executioner, the death sentence

Executions were carried out by executioners. The executioner was known as the « executor of court rulings » ; for a long time he was known as the « operator » or « master of high and low work ».

Until the 18th century, the executioner and his family were obliged to live « outside the walls » of the town. Paradoxically, public opinion in favour of the death penalty was always hostile to the executioner.

As early as the Revolution, the rehabilitation of the executioner made him an active citizen, eligible to vote and stand for election. Executioners' families then became castes of untouchables, owning their position. Executioners were paid a « salary » for each execution, which, together with a subscription for the upkeep of their equipment, provided them with a substantial income.

 End of public executions : 24 June 1939

Last guillotine execution : 1977 (Eugène Weidmann in Versailles)

Abolition of the death sentence : 9 October 1981 by Robert Badinter, Minister of Justice under François Mitterrand

 

 

 

 

 

 

St-cyr-au-mont-d-or - sommaire

2-1 : Le Mont d'Or, gold mountain ?

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Bussière quarry - A. Milliand, 2023

Le Mont d'Or, gold mountain ?

Perhaps you're wondering about the meaning of the name « Mont d'Or », which our village and the surrounding villages have inherited?

Mont d'Or could come from the Latin root « mons aureus », evoking the golden colour of stones. Even if there is no gold in our mountains, the legend of the gold accumulated by a certain Licinius deserves to be told. 

Born at the foot of the mountain of Tarare, Licinius was a Gaul who was first a captive and slave of Julius Caesar, who freed him, and who became governor of Lugdunum under the reign of Augustus...

The scene takes place north of the Mont d'Or, on Licinius' summer estate.

Licinius, procurator, pressured the Gauls to collect taxes beyond all imaginable limits. It is even claimed that he introduced fourteen months in the year to increase the yield of taxes. Exploited, the Gauls complained to Augustus. But Licinius was too clever to let himself be taken unawares. He invited the emperor to his splendid estate on the Mont d'Or and showed him the treasure contained in his cellars: there were heaps of gold there. Licinius said to the emperor : « Majesty, all this is yours... This gold was a dangerous weapon in the hands of the Gauls, who hate Rome and the Romans. I have taken it from them and given it to you as if it belonged to you. Augustus, charmed by this immense gift, accepted the gold and left his palace and estates to his subordinate. Since then, the mountain near Lugdunum has been called the Mont d'Or, and the place where Licinius - now Luzin - hid his treasure is none other than Montluzin, a place in Chasselay where Roman remains have been found ».

St-cyr-au-mont-d-or - sommaire

2-2 : Le Mont d'Or, water mountain ?

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Bachat from Galand fountain - A. Milliand, 2010

Le Mont d'Or, water mountain ?

Could Mont d'Or etymologically be a mountain of water ?

The old Celtic root Dwr, dor, dour meaning water, the Mont d'Or could be the mountain of water or springs, a hypothesis that is favoured today.

The geology of the Monts d'Or massif is in fact conducive to the retention of underground water, springs and streams, which our ancestors have known how to exploit for a long time. The large number of water catchments and their variable flow rates explain the presence of numerous clear-water wells, cisterns, fountains and washhouses.

A first hydrographic network was formed by the rivers and streams of the Mont d'Or, and a second, by the aqueducts built or dug by man, all fed by catchments, either on the surface for the aqueducts, such as the Roman aqueduct, or deep for the deep aqueducts. 

As early as 1573, Nicolas de Nicolay mentions in St-Cyr « these beautiful fountains belonging to Messieurs de Saint-Jean », belonging to the canons of St-Jean cathedral. In this ancient civilisation of gravity-fed water, houses were built on the water but, apart from a few exceptions, water was not brought into the house as it is today. A house in Croix-des-Rameaux, near Tomacine, has a cellar-storage room and a cellar-tank underneath for storing water. 

When the water doesn't arrive in the house or underneath, it arrives in the immediate surroundings with the bachats, stone basins, springs, fountains, a wash-house or a fishpond. In this way, water was close at hand for domestic and agricultural use.

In the 19th century, there were no fewer than ten water fountains for domestic use in St-Cyr, including the very old Chaz fountain, still photographed in the early 20th century, located on the former Place Neuve, now Place de la République. A hexagonal pavilion covered this old public fountain, which replaced the « boutasse » where, before 1860, the population came to draw drinking water with buckets.

There were also a number of communal wells, which served the entire population of the hamlet and were provided by the Lord.  Finally, St-Cyr had at least 10 public washhouses. They were the lifeblood of the village, where good news and bad news were exchanged.

Fountains, wells and wash-houses

Lassalle fountain ap.1906 - album mairie – Focale des Monts d’Or                                    

In addition to the Chaz fountain, located on the former Place Neuve (Place de la République), there is the Galand fountain, also known in the past as the Pétozan or Château fountain, on Place St-Quentin ; the fountain on Place Lassalle, donated by Nicolas Lassalle in 1905, now deactivated; the Tarenceux or Tarency fountain at La Jardinière, now filled in ; the Puits des vignes fountain, whose pump was recently removed; the Nandron well fountain under the Hermitage, which supplied water at between 1 and 7°C all year round, etc. ..

A well and its wheel – Cl. Fouilloux street to St-Cyr - S. Maurice

St-Cyr also had a number of clear-water wells, including the one in the garden of the former presbytery with its glazed tile roof, the well at La Bussière, La Jardinière and Nervieux, which were made available to the population.

As for the public washhouses, some received water from a catchment (Greffières, Gasses, Mont-Thou, rue du Lavoir, Braizieux, Couter, rue Gabriel Péri), while others, such as Pomet and Combes, ran alongside the water.

Song « Le lavoir » by Pierre Dupont - Mairie St-Cyr

Pierre Dupont, 1821-1870

A committed Lyonnais poet and songwriter, he was brought up by his uncle, the parish priest of Rochetaillée. In Paris, as editor of the Académie Française dictionary, he rubbed shoulders with Nerval, Hugo and Baudelaire, who prefaced a collection of his songs, including the famous Complainte des Carriers Couzonnais.

Having taken part in a barricade during the 1848 Revolution, he was condemned, then pardoned, and would remain the poet of the working class condit

The Mont d'Or aqueduct

Mont d'Or aqueduct – St-Cyr, Montluc - M. Gaillard, 2006

Shortly after the death of Julius Caesar, a colony was founded for the Roman citizens expelled from Vienne, on the hill overlooking the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers. Lugdunum was born. The year was 43 BC.

As the residence of the imperial legate, the city was intended to bear witness to the greatness of Rome and the Empire. The great urban facilities built by the Romans - forum, basilica, temple, theatre, thermal baths, circus, etc. - were imposing in their size and luxury. 

While the craftsmen living in the lower quarters (160-170 m) made do with water from the river, the latter was unsuitable for the upper town (250-300 m), where quality running water was required. Unfortunately, local resources were limited : a few wells and cisterns collecting rainwater had been found... But the inhabitants wanted pure, abundant, running water. They sought it in the three mountains that closed off the horizon on the right bank of the Saône. This led to the construction of four aqueducts, which were admired for their size and technical sophistication.

To the north, the Mont d'Or massif rises to 625m. Thick layers of limestone, raised and faulted, are interspersed with marl, giving rise to unevenly distributed water sources. The main springs are in the Poleymieux valley, at the foot of Mont Thou, and in the Saint-Romain valley, between Mont Thou and Mont Cindre.

Here, between 10 BC and 10 AD, the first and shortest of the four aqueducts (26 km) was built, the Mont d'Or aqueduct, with a gradient of 1.4 m per kilometre and a flow rate of 4,000 m3 per day. With its source at an altitude of 372 m, it reaches the Minimes district at an altitude of 260 m. It is fed by the source of the Thou, also known as the Antoux, below the hamlet of Gambins, in Poleymieux.  From there it flows around the hill towards Couzon, then down into the Arches valley at St Romain, collecting numerous springs along the way (one of which is still visible), then passes under Vieux Collonges (Aquaria), then St-Cyr (Mercuire, Nervieux, les Auges, Montluc, Chatanay, le Monteillier) and from St-Didier heads towards Champagne and Ecully, where it crosses the Planches stream via a siphon bridge. It finally reached the Minimes district after climbing the Montribloud spur and crossing the old Vaugneray railway, Rue Barthélémy Buyer and the centre of Les Massues.

Cross-section of the Mont d'Or aqueduct - Laurent Michel, 2005

This is a rectangular masonry canal with a gentle slope, where the water flows by gravity at a moderate speed. The bottom (invert) and sides (footings) are covered with a watertight hydraulic rendering made from lime mortar, sand and crushed terracotta. It is covered with three rows of corbelled stones. The technical feat that characterises it is the crossing of two valleys (vallon des Rivières between St-Didier and Champagne and vallon du ruisseau des Planches in Ecully) by bridge-siphons lined with lead pipes.

Water galleries

The Mont d'Or massif is home to a large number of tunnels that were dug and laid out in the past to collect underground water, drain the soil or exploit a mining vein. In 1993, Michel Garnier, historian of the Mont d'Or, counted 127 such galleries. The geology of the Mont d'Or and its ancestral human occupation explain this large number : the Mont d'Or can be likened to a « geological mille-feuilles » whose alternating fractured limestone layers and impermeable marl layers are conducive to underground water retention. The ancients were able to capture this water by digging galleries to reach water-bearing areas. All the water had to do was flow by gravity to escape into the open air.

 

 

St-cyr-au-mont-d-or - sommaire

3-1 : Description of the castle

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Reconstruction of St-Cyr castle - Laurent Michel, 2005

Description of the castle

Built in the 12th century and owned by the Archbishop and Canons of St Jean, this castle was the first link in a powerful line of defence between Lyon and Anse. It reflects the intensifying conflict between the Lords of Forez and the Archbishop of St Jean over the title of Count of Lyon.

Covering an area of 3,700 m², it contains remnants of the old walls, the vingtain, its keep and its gates dating from the second half of the 12th century, the house of the former obedience, i.e. that of the canon, the enclosure where the inhabitants took refuge in the event of danger, an old Romanesque church dating from the 11th-12th centuries and a number of houses from the late Middle Ages.

Imagine this fortified castle, on its rocky promontory, with its imposing towers and surrounded by vertiginous quarries. It consisted of a quadrilateral flanked by five towers and protected by thick walls.

The keep, a large square tower, was originally around thirty metres high. It was cut back by 6 metres in the 18th century because it was in danger of falling into ruin.  It lost a few more metres in 1881 and today stands no higher than 19.50m. In times of war, the lookout, who stood at the top of the tower, would sound his cornet à bouquin at the sight of the enemy.

Four other towers defended the castle :

- A square tower, known as the Pennelle, in the south-west corner, so named because it bore the pennon of the Lords of St-Cyr. This tower overlooked the public square, now known as Place du Général de Gaulle. It was known as La Girette, La Geôle and later as Le Ratier and Le Colombier.

- A square tower at the south-east corner of the castle, behind today's pharmacy, was known as Vaux or Valier, perhaps because it was located on the steep slope of the hill, overlooking the valleys to the south.

- A square tower at the north-east corner, which still exists today although its top has been shortened.

- Finally, a round tower, between the north entrance you passed and the keep, known as the « round tower opposite Mont-Cindre ». It was destroyed in 1830, as part of a project to extend the old cemetery. castle

A defensive system using the topography of the castle

St Cyr fortified castle, engraving  Combet-Descombes, Mathieu Varille, 1925

The south side of the castle, which was less extensive than the north and overlooked a very steep slope, had just two towers, while the north side where you are standing, which was slightly longer, had three. In addition, behind the round tower, there was a square tower forming the bell tower of the old church.

Unfortunately, the enclosure is only partially preserved. Some parts have disappeared over the centuries : sections of the walls collapsed in 1586 and 1660 ; others were demolished in 1834 to enlarge the cemetery or build the girls' school ; as for the parts that have survived, they are hardly visible any more, as they are hidden by the houses lining the ramparts.

We do not know whether the ramparts and towers were crenellated, whether there were echiffres (wooden sentry boxes), machicolations (stone galleries) or even a hoarding (wooden defence at the top of a tower) ; a 15th-century estimate mentions this type of development, but it seems that it was never put into effect.

According to 18th-century plans, the towers were built as an extension of the ramparts, although towers projecting from the surrounding wall would have provided better defence.

This defensive system was completed by ditches, surrounding the castle to the north, west and east, with the south overlooking very steep slopes.

Aimé Vingtrinier, 1812 -1903 Lyon

Aimé Vingtrinier - Wikipédia

Born in Lyon, near the Place Bellecour in 1812, he spent his childhood at the Château de la Barre near Ambérieu with his grandmother, where he became acquainted with the rural world. He spent his secondary school years as a boarder at Poncin in the Ain region. In Lyon, he witnessed the Canuts revolt of 1830 and then travelled to Paris and Normandy.

He started out as a shovel-maker, then became a property developer for Société Bonnet-Vingtrinier in 1829, before becoming an insurance agent.

In 1852, he bought the Boitel printing works in Lyon, which employed up to 70 people. 30 years later, he became head librarian of the Bibliothèque de Lyon, where he remained for more than 20 years. During this period, he published a number of magazines, columns in the famous « Zigzags Lyonnais autour du Mont-d'Or », and many books on the Bugey region, as well as poems.

St-cyr-au-mont-d-or - sommaire

4-1 : The old church

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Sign Curé Ranchon, registre BMS St-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or 1757 - ADMR

The old church

When the parish priest Ranchon arrived in St-Cyr in January 1752, he found the church in a sorry state.

Over the previous ten years, three parish priests had succeeded each other and had been unable to undertake major repairs due to lack of time. In the 19th century, Abbé Duplain* described the situation as follows : « the dilapidated state in which he found his church offered a good opportunity for his intelligent activity, and in fact, continuous repairs transformed the building ».

In 1753, the parish priest Ranchon created a new door in the vingtain for his church, by partially cutting down the embankment: "In April, we had a large new door installed, both for the size, the wood and the fittings. The costs were almost entirely covered by Brother Claude, the chapel warden at Mont-Cindre. The old doors were walled up".

The wardrobe, safe, confessional, sideboard and part of the paving needed to be done.

During 1754, the parish priest Ranchon did not slacken his efforts : « the parish priest did not neglect anything to make the burghers contribute to the repairs of the church. Of all the surrounding areas, the church of Saint-Cyr is the poorest, given that nothing had been done there for 80 years : a poorly roofed barn resembled this church; no linen in the sacristy, two old chests and a chair were used as a confessional and storage for everything. The two cellars of the church were dug by the inhabitants and the lord priest paid the workmen and the cadets who are on top, the paving, given that there was only earth... ». Still in 1754, « The baptismal font is new, as are the silver bulbs and everything else. The sacristy has been almost entirely wooded in oak, at the expense of the parish priest, who asks his successor not to forget it in his prayers ».

« The paving and steps were laid in front of the main doors of the church by the care of the parish priest. The stones used for this work, according to Abbé Duplain, were taken from the great tower, "which was then cut back by 18 feet, no doubt because the top was in danger of ruin ».

« Work was done to build a sacristy at the back of the church, as well as to tidy up the cemetery, which had no fences and was similar to Mont-Cindre... ».

In 1755, repairs had to be made to the rectory which « had fallen into ruin because the roof had fallen in. The lord priest Ranchon made cover part of the building to hold there a schoolmaster, and it of the written assent of the inhabitants... ».

In 1757, the parish priest had the roof (of the bell tower) with the beam that crosses it put in good condition, had the outside of the said bell tower, which had a quantity of corruptions in the walls, whitened and plastered : item had the vault on which the bell ringers stand paved and finally had the entire choir pricked and rendered, given that it was very dark.

In January 1759, Sr Ranchon, the parish priest, had the wall enclosing the cemetery and the door in the wall of the vingtain built, all at his own expense. We also levelled the ground of the aforementioned cemetery, so the whole is in good condition. And the parish priest Ranchon ended with this epicurean observation :

« More than 3500 livres were spent on repairs from 1753 to 1754, not including the stone carriages, the removal of earth by the inhabitants free of charge, and the priest's wine, which was never in short supply. Ora, rector, pro benevolo pradecessore tuo ». (Pray for your benevolent predecessor).

Jean-Baptiste RANCHON, Curé de St-Cyr de 1752 à 1792

Jean-Baptiste RANCHON was born in St Chamond on 26 August 1722, to Jean-Baptiste Ranchon, Master tanner and shoemaker in St Chamond and Marie Badard.

Ordained to the priesthood at the age of 23 on 17 December 1746 by Mgr Nicolas Navarre, Bishop of Lyon, and after serving as curate at St-Didier and Fourvière, he took possession of the curacy of St-Cyr au Mont d'Or at the beginning of January 1752. He was just 30 years old at the time. He remained there until 1792, when he became a member of the general council of the commune of St-Cyr in 1792-93.

During the forty years he officiated as priest-curé in St-Cyr, Jean-Baptiste Ranchon recorded in writing all the events that took place in St-Cyr and beyond the limits of his parish. These pages, written without any historical pretensions but with a fairly independent view of facts of general importance, form a fascinating chapter in the history of St-Cyr and the Lyonnais region.

He died in St-Cyr on 26 August 1805, aged 83. He thus lived through the Revolution, where even during the worst days he was not troubled, either because of the oath he had sworn to the civil constitution of the clergy, or because of the affection he had inspired in the villagers.

The numerous successes he achieved in the cases he had to defend against the canons of St-Jean or his farmer from St Cyr, show us that he was a man of great business acumen, well helped by his brother, a lawyer in Paris.

Modifications to the church over the centuries

North side of the church - J.F Reynaud, DAO M. Baudrand

Probably dating from the 11th century, and therefore predating the castle, the old church could have determined the orientation of the ramparts.

In its current state, it has retained most of its Romanesque structure. The nave is built of Monts d'Or stone, with the white stones of the quoins of the old façade clearly visible. The church was enlarged to the west, perhaps first in 1658 and definitely in 1762 by Curé Ranchon, who also had four large windows made, two in the old nave and two in the extension.

View of the nave from the north, with the corner chainwork of the old façade - Focale des Monts d’Or                                    

Further to the east, there is a choir bay, which is wider than it is long. It would appear to have been built in several stages up to the dome, topped by a powerful bell tower whose construction has been reinforced by buttresses on the outside and lateral arcatures on the inside.

The awkwardly constructed dome is perhaps the result of a reconstruction, as are the upper parts of the bell tower, which could date back to the 16th century.

To the east, the semi-circular apse, not visible from here, was also built in several stages and extended in the 18th century by a sacristy, which was at one time converted into a prison.

The dead were buried in the church, where several 18th-century tombstones can still be seen on the floor. Until 1856, the cemetery extended to the north of the church.

Following completion of the new church of St Juliette in 1872, the western extension of the old church was converted into a public school in 1880. Then, in 1923, the whole of the old building became a village hall.