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Origin and history

The priory of Saint-Marcel-lès-Sauzet came into being in 985 when Lambert and his wife Falectrude offered land to Benedictine monks Audoin and Durand to rebuild a monastery on the site then called Salciaco. Their son, Count Ademar (or Aimar), confirmed this donation before 1037 and linked the monastery to the Clunisian order. Several local properties, such as the priories of Saint John d'Autichamp or Saint Stephen d'Espeluche, are gradually associated with him. The present church, built in the second half of the 12th century, reflects this clunisian influence, although later sources evoke a possible transition to regular canons in 1165, a hypothesis contradicted by the reports of 1293 indicating the degraded state of the buildings (cloister, dormitory, bell tower).

In the 13th century, the priory had six monks and adopted a Provence Romanesque architecture tinted with innovations, like an octagonal dome decorated with the symbols of the evangelists. The site went through periods of decline, especially after the Revolution: in 1791 its property was sold as ecclesiastical property, but the chapel became parish church. In the 19th century, the Marists bought the buildings in 1862 and restored the church, while in 1877 the discovery of a 8th century Christian altar during excavations attested to a long earlier religious occupation. Ranked as a historical monument in 1846, however, the priory lost its southern gallery of the cloister (XVIIth–XVIIIth centuries) at the end of the 20th century, when it was converted into housing.

The architecture of the priory, remarkable for its homogeneity, dates mainly from the beginning of the thirteenth century. The nave, vaulted in a broken cradle and flanked by low sides, leads to a transept surmounted by an octagonal dome, supporting a reduced bell tower in the eighteenth century. The western portal, typical of the 13th century, and the committed columns mark a break with the traditional Roman canons, illustrating the transition to Gothic. Despite subsequent changes (partial destruction of the cloister, roof of the bell tower), the church retains Romanesque elements, such as the division of columns and pilasters into thirds, while integrating structural innovations for the period.

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