Chapelle des Pénitents noirs de Monteux, Chapel in Monteux, France

The Chapelle des Pénitents Noirs de Monteux is a stone chapel on Rue Alphonse Daudet in Monteux, built in 1842 for the Confrérie des Pénitents Noirs. It has a single nave with a plain rectangular plan and seats about 150 people. Its 2018 stained glass windows depict the brotherhood's charitable works.

The Confrérie des Pénitents Noirs was founded in Monteux in 1566 and used a first chapel behind the church of Notre-Dame de Nazareth for nearly two centuries. Their second building was seized and sold during the French Revolution, and it was only in 1842 that they were able to build the present chapel on land given by a local rector.

The chapel's stained glass windows, installed in 2018, depict members of the Pénitents Noirs performing charitable works; their colours shift with the daylight. The chapel also houses a statue of Saint Gens, patron saint of Monteux, which is carried in an annual pilgrimage still observed by locals.

Entry to the chapel is free, and guided tours led by a local craftsman are available to help visitors understand the stained glass windows and the history of the site. Since the chapel also hosts exhibitions, it is worth checking beforehand whether an event is taking place during your visit.

The chapel's stained glass, installed in 2018, depicts members of the Confrérie des Pénitents Noirs carrying out acts of charity rather than biblical scenes. Look for the panels showing the brothers tending the sick and giving alms, a subject chosen to record the order's own history in the building it built in 1842.