The churches belong to our collective memory. Each of us is attached to the church where he married, where he baptized his children, where he buried his parents. This is undoubtedly one of the most interesting heritages that can be visited. The memory of living together in a primitive community.
The term church is a generic term that refers to a Christian place of worship. So all the cathedrals, basilicas, abbeys, chapels... are also churches. In practice, therefore, a church is referred to as a "b" parish church, "the church of a village or neighbourhood of a city."
The Christians originally met in private mansions (Domus ecclesiae). From the fourth century on, the Christian religion became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christians can therefore build public buildings to bring together the faithful (ecclesia or churches).
The construction of churches respond to different architectural styles:
Paleo-Christian churches ending with the Western Roman Empire in 476.
Preroman churches until the early Romanesque arts, around the year one thousand.
Romanesque churches from the year one thousand to 1150 (First Romanesque, Romanesque and Romano-Gothic).
Gothic churches from 1150, until the renaissance in 1500, with primitive gothic until 1230, the gothic radiating until 1400, finally the flamboyant and late gothic, which will coexist with the renaissance style until 1600.
Renaissance period, often mixed with flamboyant Gothic from 1500 to 1600.
Classical churches follow the classical period of the second renaissance and extends from 1620 to 1750. This period coincides with the Baroque period of the counter-reform. font-family: non-serif;">The neo-Gothic, neo-classical and neo-Roman churches will be built during the period 1750-1900.
Modern churches from 1900 to the present day.
Relais-Historiques de France has identified more than 8800 churches classified as MH by regions, departments, but also according to the 6 sub-categories opposite.
