Église Saint-Martial

English translation

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History

Roman building comprising a deep hemicycle apse, preceded by a bay, vaulted with a dome on squinches, and connected to a later nave (late 12th century), covered with a broken-barrel roof structure. Two 15th-century chapels, vaulted with ribs, open in each lateral wall of the apse. The southern one features corbels ornated with the emblems of the Evangelists. The nave is lit, besides the two small round-arch windows pierced, by a large two-light window opened to the south in the 16th century. The main door with voussoirs, small columns and scalloped tympanum, dates from the end of the Romanesque period, but has been extremely restored. The bell tower raised on the bay preceding the apse, is of square plan, crowned with an octagonal timber spire covered with shingles. Against the chevet of the church is raised a processional altar formed of a chamfered slab placed on two short columns whose capitals ornated with interlaces appear to date from the Carolingian period. In the first half of the 19th century, the interior was covered with paintings and on the squinches of the transept dome were applied shells.