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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Loubouer finds its origins in a Benedictine abbey founded in the 10th century on a promontory, around which the present town develops. Transformed into a collegiate church with an abbot and eight canons, it flourished until the French Revolution. Its early church, built between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century, is dedicated to Saint Loubouer and has three naves without transept, with six columns decorated with leafy capitals. In 1443, he received the States of the Lannes, marking Tursan's attachment to the Kingdom of France and the local end of the Hundred Years' War.

In 1569, during the Wars of Religion, the church was destroyed by the Huguenot troops of Montgomery, acting under the orders of the Queen of Navarre Jeanne d'Albret. The minutes of Charles IX describe its total demolition, with the exception of part of the facade and northern absidiole. The stones are looted by the inhabitants to rebuild their houses, and the canons find refuge at the Abbey of Saint-Sever. Only these remains and re-used capitals remain in the Romanesque building.

Reconstruction began around 1590 with the recovered stones, replacing the slender columns with square pilasters. Under Louis XIII, a massive bell tower was erected, and under Louis XV, the sacristy was enriched with woodwork. However, the northern absidiole murals were then condemned. The present church thus preserves traces of its turbulent history, between destruction and rebirth.

The building illustrates the religious and political upheavals of Gascogne, from its symbolic role in the end of English domination to its destruction during conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. Its architecture now combines surviving Romanesque elements and later reconstructions, reflecting the vicissitudes of its past.

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