Église Saint-Cirgues

English translation

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History

The church existed in 1229. It comprises a nave of two bays, the second of which opens to the north onto a lateral chapel of Gothic period, and a choir comprising a straight bay and a semi-circular apse. The vault of the nave rests on engaged columns on pilasters, stopped four metres from the ground on carved corbels. The pointed arch separating the straight bay from the apse that follows it is likewise received by capitals with decorated baskets. The same applies to the capitals of the niches of the apse. The porch tower rises above the triumphal arch. Pierced by four round-arch openings, this porch tower, probably repaired in 1768, terminates in a rectilinear coping with roof slopes bearing, at each of its ends, a pinnacle surmounted by a ball. According to the method adopted throughout almost the entire region, it is served by a round tower bearing the dates 1821 and 1824. The church was restored and consolidated at the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th. The openings with semi-circular niches bear witness to a process originating in Germany, from which it spread to Tétouane, followed the Rhône valley to spread through Lombardy and Tunisia, leaving traces in Velay from which it reached Auvergne. The pentagonal chevet, the balls employed recall Velaisian influence, mingled with Provençal taste in the capitals with volutes imitating the Corinthian basket.