TreeAlive
‹ Base Mérimée: Monuments historiques, France

Base Mérimée: Monuments historiques · France

Baptistère Saint-Jean

Riom, Puy-de-Dôme, France

The record

Designation
Historic monument, registered (inscrit)
Protection
inscrit MH
Extent of protection
Baptistère Saint-Jean : inscription par arrêté du 14 mars 1927
Protection dates
1927/03/14 : inscrit MH
Type
baptistère
Main period of construction
14e siècle
Ownership
propriété privée
Address
place Saint-Jean
Commune
Riom
Département
Puy-de-Dôme
Region
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Country
France
Coordinates
45.89353, 3.11184
Mérimée reference
PA00092262

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

5 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1776 map "52 Clermont." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Get directions ↗

This record on the Ministère de la Culture's POP platform ↗

The Ministère de la Culture's notice

L'église a sans doute été construite à la place d'un ancien baptistère d'époque gallo-romaine. Mentionnée en 1192, l'église était alors paroissiale et était affectée à l'administration du baptême. Y étaient également célébrés les mariages ainsi que les enterrements d'enfants décédés dans l'année de leur naissance. A la Révolution, l'église fut désaffectée puis vendue comme bien national. L'édifice de style gothique se compose d'une nef à deux travées, la partie formant le choeur ayant été démolie à la Révolution. Une fenêtre de la fin de l'époque gothique est creusée dans le mur méridional de la seconde travée du vaisseau. Elle est formée d'une haute et large ouverture en plein cintre, sans meneaux, dont l'ébrasement est orné de la mouluration caractéristisque du style flamboyant. Sous un voûtin pratiqué dans les murs de l'église, du côté sud, se voit encore la trace des anciens fonts baptismaux.

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

The church was undoubtedly built on the site of an ancient baptistery from the Gallo-Roman period. Mentioned in 1192, the church was then parochial and was used for the administration of baptism. Marriages were also celebrated there as well as burials of children who died within the year of their birth. At the Revolution, the church was desecrated and then sold as national property. The building of Gothic style consists of a nave with two bays, the part forming the choir having been demolished during the Revolution. A window from the late Gothic period is cut into the southern wall of the second bay of the nave. It is formed by a high and wide round arch opening, without mullions, whose splays are decorated with the characteristic moulding of the flamboyant style. Under a vault opening made in the walls of the church, on the south side, there is still visible the trace of the old baptismal fonts.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Base Mérimée, Ministère de la Culture, data last updated 2026-09-17, reused under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab). Record text is reproduced unchanged. Ministère de la Culture · Licence Ouverte 2.0
See your own family's places on a living map