Église de Vendès

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

The importance of the agglomeration and its distance from the administrative centre led to the erection of a sanctuary from the earliest antiquity. The present building would date from the beginning of the Romanesque period, as evidenced by the archaism of the capitals and the bases of columns and colonnettes. The church is formed of a rectangular nave and a semi-circular chevet forming the choir. The nave is covered with a false plaster vault, but must formerly have borne a ceiling or exposed roof structure. The choir communicates with the nave by a round arch with double roll, received by means of wide chamfered abaci, on pilasters without bases, the upper roll falling forward onto small cubic pilasters engaged at the angles of the nave. These supports form between them an angle where is leant a column surmounted by a capital not in use whose basket is ornamented with semi-circles set side by side terminated by a ball, whose form is peculiar to the district of Mauriac. The capitals of the median window lighting the chevet are carved with two confronted lions for one, and the same decoration as those of the entrance to the choir for the other. The west façade opens through a door whose round arch frames a tympanum of 1778 and presents decorated capitals. The bell-tower wall terminates in a sharp gable, surmounted by an antéfixe cross, and is pierced by two round-arch openings.