Chapel of Trachin

The Chapel of Trachin is the oldest chapel in the city, it dates from the 14th century. It concentrates religious objects from the various chapels of the city. It can be visited on request for groups.

Go back in time to 1320, the date you can see inscribed on the pediment above the exterior gate, gate condemned for security reasons, which dates from the beginning of the XNUMXth century. Above the porch, a sculpted stone virgin from the XNUMXth century, listed in the inventory of MH, as well as a head, also sculpted, that of its founder, GuiguesTrachi or Guy Trachin, in a cap and hair with sausage of the time. Of the priory complex from the beginning of the XNUMXth century, only the chapel remains.
The bell tower is in the Gothic style, octagonal in shape on a square base, it is entirely built in dark local granite.
It is said that the survival of this building through the centuries results from a part of luck. While all the chapels and churches were ransacked and destroyed during the wars of religion. Trachin remained standing. The Protestants had decided to use it for their worship. In concrete terms, the chapel was used by Protestants for their worship from 1561 until the proclamation of the Edict of Nantes in April 1598.
The situation of the priory deteriorated at the end of the 1741th century. To the relaxation of discipline was added the weakening of incomes which no longer allowed the maintenance of buildings and the subsistence of a community. To curb this situation, an Order of the King's Council of State (Oct. XNUMX) ordered the regrouping of the priories. Trachin, as well as Peyraud and Verlieux were attached to Notre-Dame d'Annonay. Thus ended the priory of Trachin, after four centuries of existence...
In 1732, following a mission, the Brotherhood of Trachin was erected, comprising a congregation of men, under the title of "the Nativity of the Virgin Mary", and a congregation of women under that of "the Conception of the Virgin Mary ". In 1875, the two congregations were united into one. It was the war of 1939-1945 that dealt the final blow to the Brotherhood of Trachin. The last reception dates from 1947.
If the chapel purrs today, it has rendered good and loyal service to the city for many years... For three hundred years, its bell tower served as a parish bell tower. Indeed, since the collapse of the steeple of the Notre-Dame church in 1552, until the construction of that of Saint-François in 1866, the steeple of Trachin was the only one in Annonay. On several occasions, Trachin served as a parish church. First after the Edict of Nantes. The Notre-Dame collegiate church, ransacked on several occasions, will become for thirty years, from 1568 to 1598, a real quarry where everyone comes to help themselves. It will take ten years to restore it. Trachin, then the only standing church in the city, housed all the religious services of the parish. This also earned him the opportunity to welcome Saint François de Sales who came to stay in Annonay. After the Revolution, while Notre-Dame was healing her wounds, Trachin took over. Finally, for twelve years, from 1860 to 1872, the newly erected parish of Saint Joseph de Cance had recourse to Trachin while waiting to be able to build and use its church.
In 1972, the Friends of Trachin saved the chapel and carried out its restoration. The chapel is, to date, deconsecrated. It is now a museum of Sacred Art, exhibiting objects from various surrounding parishes.

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