Edith Piaf's Square
Gluges is a tiny town in the north of the Quercy region, today in the Lot department, south-west of France. The twenty or so houses that make up the place are lined up under the protection of a large rocky outcrop where, in the past, some troglodyte dwellings were built. Since 1997, the small square in front of the 19th century church has been named after the author of La Vie en Rose, the French diva Edith Piaf.
By the end of the 1950s, Piaf was already suffering from the illness that would lead her, at just forty-seven years old, to a grave in Père Lachaise Parisian graveyard. It suited her well to spend periods of time secluded, from everything and everyone, beside the Dordogne River, which, lazily, traces endless meanders between the calcareous plateaus of Quercy. Piaf, a believer, discreetly frequented the churches in the area and, among the few and empty streets of Gluges, she entered a curious neo-Romanesque temple built in the 19th century, as the old Romanesque church had been abandoned for years. Notre Dame de l’Immaculée Conception has an elongated vertical façade, crowned by a square central tower topped by a sharp hexagonal slate roof; on each side a narrow circular tower flanks the body containing the door with a slight semicircular arch and a rose window of moderate dimensions. The nave seems to be embraced by the rocky cliff. Opposite there is a realistic stone crucifixion with an inscription detailing the fiftieth anniversary of the construction: 1901.
There, Piaf noticed the deteriorated state of the temple and, particularly, of its stained glass windows. Once, she had the opportunity to have a conversation with the priest of Saint Denis lès Martel, Father Delbos, who was also in charge of the church of Gluges, to whom she pointed out the sad state of the temple, saying: “Je séjourne à Cressensac mais j’aime votre petit village, et j’aime venir me recueillir en ce lieu. Je m’apelle Edith Piaf, est-ce que cela vous ferait plaisir que je vous offre des vitraux pour reemplacer ceux qui sont cassés? Seulement j’y mets une condition : tant que je serais en vie, je veux que personne ne sache que j’ai fait ce don”. (“I am staying at Cressensac, but I love your little village and I love coming here to meditate. My name is Edith Piaf. Would you be happy if I offered you some stained glass windows to replace the broken ones? I have only one condition: as long as I am alive, I do not want anyone to know that I made this donation.”)
The stained glass windows were renovated and Father Delbos kept his promise until the end of 1963. Edith Piaf had died on October 10th and the priest revealed the name of the donor at a mass celebrated a few days later. Thirty-four years had gone when on a summer Sunday at five in the afternoon, the municipal council decided to honour Piaf by naming after her the small space in front of Notre Dame de l’Immaculée Conception. There, next to a balcony with an iron railing and above the ivy that threatens to cover the plaque, it reads: Place Edith Piaf. Edith Giovanna Gassion who came into this world on December 19, 1915, was abandoned by her mother, who had no resources to raise her, and began her musical career in the cabarets of Pigalle, in Paris.
A few steps away remains, renovated, the old Romanesque church of Saint Pierre ès Liens, also sheltered below the cliff. From the 11th century oldest version have been preserved two capitals with interlaced panels and palmettes. It was built by Gaillard, Lord of Mirandol, to house the relics he brought from the Holy Land. On the outside, it keeps fourteen Romanesque corbels with animal and human figures. Inside, apart from the presbytery, which was renovated between the 16th and 17th centuries, some medieval mural paintings and the coats of arms of former local lords, including the Lasteyrie du Saillant and the Maynard-Lestrade, can still be seen. Desacralized in 1858 and progressively degraded, it was replaced by the neighbouring 19th century neo-Romanesque church, which Piaf fell in love with.
© J.L.Nicolas
