Église Saint-Cyr et Sainte-Julitte et oradour

English translation

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History

The church is one of the most complete and best-preserved examples of a rural parish from the 12th century. Built in red sandstone, the edifice presents a nave with a barrel vault with round arch, a square choir and a circular apse vaulted with a cul-de-four. Four chapels were added in the 15th century. They are vaulted with rib vaults with armorial rosettes. The apse is lit by a round-arch opening decorated by a toric moulding resting on small columns. The external small columns follow a local fashion: absence of base, shafts connecting directly to the moulding of the archivolt. Externally, a band decorated with billetting frames the opening. Above the choir is found the square bell tower, a rare type in the region, whose four faces are decorated with two twin openings resting on monolithic small columns. The portal has retained its oak doors and its 12th-century hinges, forged and chiselled. Beside the apse, in the centre of the location of the old cemetery, is found a funerary structure called Oradour. It presents itself as a square awning supported by four square pillars, which shelters a stone cross as well as the stone on which was laid, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the coffin to say prayers for the dead. Its band is covered with paintings from the end of the 15th century representing the twelve apostles, three on each face, holding in their hands a long scroll on which is inscribed the Creed.