Saint-Martin Church

Saint-Martin church was built in the 12th century on a site that had long been occupied, notably by an ancient monastery dating back to the 6th century. It coexisted with the church of Saint-Hilaire, destroyed in 1888. Some remains of the Saint-Hilaire church can still be seen on rue Saint-Hilaire.(…)

Saint-Martin church was built in the 12th century on a site that had long been occupied, notably by an ancient monastery dating back to the 6th century. It coexisted with the church of Saint-Hilaire, destroyed in 1888. Some remains of the Saint-Hilaire church can still be seen on rue Saint-Hilaire. The presence of these two churches bears witness to Cournon’s former division into two parishes under two distinct lords: the first around the church of Saint-Martin and its cemetery, owned by the bishop of Clermont, and the second around the former church of Saint-Hilaire, under the aegis of the lay lord.

Like the Basilica of Notre-Dame-du-Port in Clermont-Ferrand, the Church of Saint-Martin illustrates the main characteristics of the Romanesque style: use of blond arkose, barrel vaulting, semi-circular arches both inside and out, choir surrounded by an ambulatory with radiating chapels, massive barlong aisles surmounted by tribunes to support the vaults.

The church underwent several phases of restoration in the 18th and 19th centuries: rebuilding of the bell tower, construction of a chapel to the south and modification of the west facade by architect Hugues Imbert (1802-1876), who designed Saint-Eutrope church in Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Martin church in Ceyrat. The church has been listed as a Monument Historique since 1912. In 2003, a restoration program brought to light, among other things, 14th-century wall paintings and putti (cherubs) painted in the 17th and 18th centuries.