Église de Saint-Avit

English translation

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History

Dedicated to Saint-Avit, bishop of Clermont of the 7th century, the church of Saint-Avit had its cure at the nomination of the lord of the place until 1789. Of the original Romanesque church only the nave survives, later than the aisles of Mozac executed after 1131. A fine Gothic portal with triple-stepped splay and gorger-capitals was pierced to the South (13th or 14th century?). The choir is neo-Romanesque. A western bay which was to support a more important bell tower was removed (trace of detachment-arched vault profile apparent-bell tower-wall with clumsily added belfry). To the North, a complete aisle with rib vault was built in the 19th century to double the nave. In its extension was clumsily grafted a sacristy nestled against the chevet. To the South, a chapel forming a transept arm was opened at the level of the ante-choir, in a vaguely neo-Romanesque style (round-arch opening-barrel vault doubleau). The Romanesque nave of the church of Saint-Avit possesses four sculpted and polychrome capitals, three of which are historiated and executed in the manner of those of Mozac. These capitals, more crude and more naive than their model, take up some major Auvergnat themes: the evangelical angels, victories engraving on their shield, atlantes, common to a handful of major churches. This corpus, which has been thoroughly studied by Swiechowski in his work on Romanesque sculpture in Auvergne, constitutes a major element in the history of the architecture of our region.