Ancien prieuré de Lartige, à Farebout

English translation

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History

The priory of Saint-Laurent de l'Artige is a foundation due to two Venetians, Marc and his nephew Sébastien, probably pilgrims, who remained living as hermits near Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat at the very beginning of the 12th century (circa 1100-1130). In 1788, a ruined chapel preserved the memory of this first settlement at the place called l'Artige-Vieille. A transfer took place in 1174-1175, following murderous acts of violence committed against their disciples, gathered together in a small community of regular canons. The fifth prior, Hélie, had himself given an ancient fortified site, named le Chalard, forming a promontory above the confluence of the Maulde and the Vienne, facing the château du Muraud, which was renamed l'Artige-Grande. A chronicle attributes to Hélie the construction of a church, consecrated in 1198, of the old dormitory and the refectory. It is possible that this was merely a renovation, as the Chalard site already had a place of worship at the time of the donation. Ruins of a small church are mentioned by the Benedictine historian dom Estiennot during his visit around 1670. The great church currently standing is considered to be a construction of the late 13th century by Mme Andrault-Schmitt, who associates it with an altar dedication in 1267, known from an enamelled plaque now preserved in Warsaw. Despite various destructions that occurred in the following centuries (Hundred Years' War, Wars of Religion), and the sale as a national asset at the Revolution, the site preserves considerable remains. The buildings are distributed in three ranges around a square courtyard, without certainty that the fourth side, to the south, was ever built. To the north, the church forms a long single nave, high and narrow, which was subdivided by a wall to transform it into a barn, and whose barrel vault has partly collapsed, replaced by roof structure. The walls are rhythmed by oblique buttresses and divided by a string course forming a drip mould, on which the windows rest. All the openings are in pointed arch, including the north door, reserved for the laity, which is simply composed of two wide flat rolls with cavet arris, carefully dressed, under an archivolt with returns, and ornamented with corner tori resting on an impost supported by small columns topped with a small smooth basket capital. A bell tower, to the south, has the peculiarity of forming a quadrangular mass of masonry, projecting both to the outside and into the nave. Some traces of painted decoration appear beneath the render. To the east there remains a stretch of wall of the old chapter-house, pierced by three pointed arches, the central one narrower, whose extrados rests on small columns with capitals ornamented with ball-crockets, extended by a corner torus, while the wide intrados is carried by two thick and short engaged columns, resting on bases with claws. The capitals of these columns are cut with large stylized water leaves with marked arris. At the south end of this wall, a small circular tower is pierced by a door with an ogival arch, bearing the arms of the family de Bony de Lavergne, several members of which were priors of l'Artige in the late 15th and early 16th century. The western range, transformed into a dwelling, has retained its ancient volume and several original doors. Stone corbels, visible in several places in the walls, carried the roof structure that covered circulation galleries, probably in the form of a cloister.