Église Saint-Marcel du hameau de Flassa

English translation

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History

The church is mentioned for the first time in 1163, but its architecture shows the characteristics of the 11th century. The single nave ends in a rectangular eastern-oriented chevet. On the north wall, in the central bay, opens the entrance door beneath a round arch with tuff voussoirs. At the junction of the nave and chevet rises, above the roof, a wall bell tower with two arcades. The chevet, in the tradition of pre-romanesque churches of Languedoc-Roussillon, presents particularly original architectural ornamentation: its two lateral walls and its eastern gable wall are crowned by a Lombard arcading whose small arches graduate successively to follow the gable slopes. These arches are drawn in clear tuff and it appears that an attempt at polychromy was begun on the north, by the placement of red stones inside the arcs. The nave was originally covered with a barrel vault on double arches, later replaced by a roof structure on trusses. The choir is separated from the nave by a diaphragm wall barrel-vaulted in a round arch and covered with paintings representing scrollwork and clouds (16th or 17th century).