Église Saint-Martin de Champagne

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

Nothing remains of the Romanesque church but a fragment of the north gutter wall of the present nave, decorated with a pointed arch and a flat buttress. In the 13th century, a bay was erected to the west, under a tall fortified bell tower. This part has since been much altered with the opening, in the 14th century, of a chapel and, in the 16th century, of a large opening in the south wall. In the 16th century, the edifice underwent general reconstruction. The choir and nave are offset in relation to the bell tower. The west façade opens through a portal beneath a bretèche. It is terminated by an acute gable pierced with two rectangular openings. The portal is of a unique type in Périgord: four slightly pointed voussures, separated by three plain mouldings, rest on small columns with crude capitals, resting on raised plinths. The vertical faces of each voussure and of the archivolt are decorated with radiating fluting. A nail-head moulding encircles the whole. The abacuses form, on each side, a band with eight steps.