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Origin and history

Saint-Michel de Bias Church, located in the Landes department, is a neo-Gothic building built in 1904 by architect Henri Dépruneaux. Dedicated to Saint Michel, it replaces two previous churches and marks a stage on the way to Soulac des chemins de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle. Its stained glass windows, signed Gustave Pierre Dagrant, and its white marble altar, carved by Jean-Éloi Ducom, make it a remarkable example of the religious art of the time.

The first church of Bias, attested as early as the seventeenth century, was dedicated to St Michael and depended on the priory of St Mary of Mimizan. Located on a terrace between two ponds, it was abandoned around 1740 due to flooding caused by the advance of the dunes and the rise of the waters. The remains of this primitive village are now buried under the pond of Bourg-le-Vieux, formed by the meeting of the two original ponds.

A second church was erected in 1770, 2.5 km northeast, after decades of démarches by the parish's fifteen homes and their parish priest, Abbé Laville. Closed during the Revolution, it reopened in 1804 before being demolished in 1904 to give way to the present building. Its cemetery, built in 1773, bears witness to the demographic and religious expansion of the community.

The present church, completed in 1905, incorporates strong symbolic elements, such as the stained glass windows representing St. Michael's terrorizing the dragon or coat of arms of Pope Pius X. A 15th century processional cross, once preserved in the church, is now exposed to the diocesan museum. Nearby, the Saint-Michel fountain, restored in 1979 and 2003, was once a place of pilgrimage to treat stomach pain and skin disorders.

The stone of the main altar of the fountain comes from the ancient chapel of the knights of Malta, located in Ovignac. This chapel, linked to the order of Saint John of Jerusalem, illustrates the historical and religious anchoring of the region, marked by successive passages of Liguria, Iberian and Roman peoples. The Bias site, crossed by a Roman way, thus preserves traces of its medieval and modern past.

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