Saint-Martial Church

In the 15th century, a village fort occupied the upper part of the village and featured the former Romanesque church, Saint-Martial, built in the 12th century, and now destroyed. It had a single entrance (drawbridge and hinged door to the left of the spring), small narrow streets and lodges. Some(…)

In the 15th century, a village fort occupied the upper part of the village and featured the former Romanesque church, Saint-Martial, built in the 12th century, and now destroyed. It had a single entrance (drawbridge and hinged door to the left of the spring), small narrow streets and lodges. Some vestiges of the fortification are still visible at 14 rue de la Vieille Église.

The architect Jules Painchaux, designer of Église du Sacré-Cœur in Royat, put forward plans for a new church in 1879. The new building was set outside the village fort, close to the springs and the washing basins. The works began in 1891. The belfry was completed in 1898. The church was built from Volvic stone in neo-Gothic style, a style that in the 19th century reinterpreted the features of medieval Gothic architecture, including pointed arches, rib vaults, divided windows, rose windows and stained-glass art.

The new church, like the old one, is dedicated to Saint Martial, apostle of the Gauls and 1st bishop of Limoges, whose statue stands in the choir. The building features a set of stained-glass windows by Francis Grand, installed in the late 19th century and restored in 2004. Two gilded wood statues – Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary as a child, known as “Éducation de la Vierge”, and the statue of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus on her knees – come from the former Romanesque church.