Église Saint-Victor

English translation

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History

The church of Polminhac, dedicated to Saint-Victor, is of Romanesque origin. Its oldest parts (late 12th century or beginning of 13th century) correspond, according to Rochemonteix, to the choir and the bell tower with four openings. The chevet was raised in 1421 (date inscribed on the keystone of the apse) to allow the covering of the choir by rib vaults. On this occasion, buttresses were added at the angle of each section and the windows were lengthened to ensure better lighting of the sanctuary. Six lateral chapels were added in the 15th and 16th centuries. The West façade was remade up to two-thirds of its height in the late 16th century. Maintenance works and interior fittings continued until the 18th century. In the 19th century, the sacristy set against the north face of the choir was enlarged (project of 1844), the interior was decorated with stencilled painted ornament and stained glass windows were installed, completed in the 20th century by creations of master glassworker Borie du Puy. On the basis of the project of departmental architect Pierre Terrisse of 1943, a reroofing and a facing of the façades was carried out in 1952. In the 1960s, a solid tribune was installed and the walls covered with a mixture of exposed stone and render. More recently, a stained glass window was installed to light the third North chapel dedicated to the life of Saint-James of Berthieu, Jesuit born in Polminhac and canonised on 21 October 2012. This stained glass window comprises four scenes placed one above the other, representing from bottom to top the house of Polminhac where he was born on 27 November 1838, his departure on mission for Madagascar on 10 December 1875 (superposition of a sailing ship and a vernacular village), his massacre by the natives on 8 June 1896 and his beatification by Pope Paul VI on 17 October 1965.

Description

The church of Saint-Victor of Polminhac stands in the heart of the medieval town, bordered by a square on the north side. It is built of volcanic tuff (ashlar and rubble stone) andesitic breccia for certain corner courses and carved elements; its covering is in slate. The main west façade, pierced by the entrance porch, is surmounted by a porch tower with four openings. The nave of single vessel, covered with a plaster vault, is flanked by six lateral chapels. The first two covered with a barrel vault, the four others with ribs with profiles in the form of a torus and with decorated keystones (paschal lamb, pig). The choir with polygonal chevet is vaulted with ribs to six sections, resting on elongated corbels united by a keystone dated 1431 and decorated with a paschal lamb carrying a cross with oriflamme; it is preceded by a straight bay vaulted with groins, separated from the nave by a diaphragm arch. The west façade comprises two parts corresponding to two building campaigns. The lower part is pierced by a highly original portal of splayed opening formed of six voussoirs resting on as many engaged colonnettes by means of a band decorated with flat heads, fleurons, fleur-de-lis and pine cones. A crossette archivolte surmounts the whole, terminated by a sculpture representing the Eternal Father blessing with both hands. The cornices crowning to the north and south the lateral chapels are decorated with modillions probably coming from the gutter walls of the primitive Romanesque nave. In the angles, these modillions represent caricatures of human and animal figures.