Église Saint-Martin

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 church was dependent on the priory of Saint-Jean de Côle, in Périgord. It is said to have existed from the 11th century. According to the architecture, there would have been two buildings: a church dependent on the priory and the parish church. The present building is the result of their artificial union. It consists of a single nave of three Romanesque bays, covered with wood panelling, ended by a Gothic choir with a flat chevet. A small chapel opens in the south wall. Inside, a wooden gallery is rested against the western wall. The bays are delimited by engaged columns, surmounted by capitals decorated with masks at the angles. These columns, as well as the quarter-round string course running at the top of the north and south walls, suggest that the building was originally vaulted. A chapel vaulted with a transverse barrel vault opens in the north wall of the third bay. A large pointed arch separates the nave from the choir covered with a flamboyant vault. The western facade opens with a portal of Limousin type, with three round-arch voussures resting on capitals sculpted with foliage. The visible part of the north wall, which corresponds to the Romanesque nave, is in rubble stone set in mortar.