Église Saint-Sauveur-de-Chirac

English translation

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History

The former chapel of the Saint-Sauveur monastery, which became the parish church, is a building presenting Romanesque and Gothic architecture, with interventions from the late 16th and early 17th centuries following destruction caused by the Wars of Religion. It consists of a nave with aisles, a transept and a three-sided apse. From the 12th century remains the western part with the nave and aisles. The eastern part must have been rebuilt in the late 16th century. The vault of the nave, in slightly broken barrel vault, was undoubtedly remade in the late 16th century. The aisles are vaulted in round-arch barrel vault resting on a Romanesque column and a pilaster. Above these aisles is a vaulted gallery which must have continued to the square tower adjoining the chevet. These galleries, connected to each other by an interior passage, were added or transformed for defence, as indicated by the presence of arrow slits. The keep has disappeared. A turret rose on the north-west corner buttress. The fortification of the building is also perceptible at the level of the Romanesque portal where a groove cut into the wall allowed the passage of a portcullis for the defence of the entrance. The quality of the sculptures adorning the capitals suggests the intervention of an artist from outside the region. Bell tower rebuilt in 1603.