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Origin and history

The church Saint-Michel de Saint-Michel-de-Bannières, located in the Lot en Occitanie, is a Roman Catholic building whose Romanesque parts (polygonal apse, two semicircular apsidioles and transept) date from the 12th century. These elements, like carved capitals, testify to an ambitious construction originally planned with collaterals, but never completed. The choir, vaulted in cul-de-four, and the cross of the transept, surmounted by a dome, illustrate local Romanesque art, while remains of murals prior to the 19th century remain.

In the 15th century, the church was fortified in the context of the disturbances of the Hundred Years War and the Wars of Religion: the bell tower became a square tower with mâchicoulis, and a barlong defense tower was added to the north of the transept. The nave, reduced to a vaulted bay, is flanked by a Gothic chapel. A 19th-century decoration campaign introduced paintings in the abside and stained glass windows by L.V. Gesta and J. Lacoste (1858), while 18th-century arrangements remained in the choir.

Founded at the end of the 11th century as Benedictine priory by the lords of Saint Michael, the church is given to the Abbey of Saint Martin de Tulle. The funeral chapel of the lords of Blanat, enlarged between 1609 and 1620, attests to its role in local seigneurial life. Ranked a historical monument in 1994, it preserves objects listed in the Palissy base and a 19th century painted decoration, mixing medieval, Renaissance and modern heritage.

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