Ancien prieuré de Lanville

English translation

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History

Located in the archpriest district of Ambérac, diocese of Angoulême, the conventional priory Notre-Dame de Lanville, founded at an unknown date, was attached around 1120 to the rule of the regular canons of Saint Augustine. It remained conventional until its suppression in 1791. The buildings were for the most part in ruin in 1632 and difficulties becoming increasingly greater, the priory was united to the abbey Sainte-Geneviève du Mont. The visitation reports of 1636 and 1672 indicate that important works were carried out to restore the priory in the second half of the 17th century. The buildings situated to the south of the church could be the prior's dwelling or the almoner's. They comprise a main building for habitation, flanked by two wings north and south constituting the outbuildings, arranged around a closed courtyard. The north wing partly modern has retained some openings characteristic of the 14th and 15th centuries. A long vault covered with a broken barrel vault develops under the entire length of this wing. The south wing comprises round arch openings alternating with small rectangular bays presumably from the 17th century. The main dwelling of rectangular plan opens, to the west, onto a terrace overhanging a basin spanned by a bridge-staircase. The dwelling is itself built over a long basket-handle barrel vault. The church was fortified in the 15th century. In its primitive state, its nave was covered with three domes which collapsed and were replaced, in the 15th century, by rib vaults. In 1904, the presence of a canalised stream having weakened the foundations of the building, the façade collapsed.