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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church Our Lady of Olliergues originated in a castral chapel given in 1225 at the Abbey of the Chair-God by the bishop of Clermont. This primitive building, located in the enclosure of the castle, was demolished and rebuilt between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as evidenced by the choir and the two spans of the nave. The chapel, enlarged in the 15th century, later became a parish church under the name of Saint Vincent, before being dedicated to Notre Dame after the Revolution.

The interior architecture preserves remarkable elements of the 14th and 15th centuries, such as the vaulted choir of six dogwives decorated with foliage and carved heads. The capitals, decorated with plant or animal motifs, and the flamboyant portal illustrate this period. In the 17th century, a south side was added (dates reached 1606-1676), followed in the 19th century (1840-1842) by the construction of the north side, supervised by engineer Vimal Dupuy, who also modified the alignment of the bell tower to include a medieval lateral gate.

The wooden bell tower, covered with an imperial roof and a slate polygonal arrow, was restored in 1974. The building, classified as Historical Monument in 1961, thus blends traces of its castral past, parish transformations and modern restorations, while remaining a rare example of late Gothic architecture in the region.

Originally, the chapel was part of the lower courtyard of a castle, reflecting the religious and defensive role of the castral buildings in the Middle Ages. Its evolution into a parish church after the Revolution marked its anchor in the community life of Olliergues, while the modifications of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries testify to its adaptation to successive liturgical and aesthetic needs.

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