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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Abbey of Saint-Polycarp, today a parish church under the name of the Church of Purification, was built in the 12th century as the heart of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, under the name of Our Lady. Its lumbar Romanesque bedside, semi-circular and adorned with Lombard bands, as well as its two granite preroman altars (one of which carries an alpha-omega chrism), testify to its artistic and religious importance. Classified as a Historical Monument on July 22, 1913, it also preserves Romanesque murals inspired by the Apocalypse of John, discovered in 1972.

The foundation of the monastery would go back to 780 or 811, according to letters attributed to Charlemagne, by a lord named Attala, first abbot and founder under the rule of St Benedict. The church, the only remaining building with an aqueduct and a basin, consists of a nave of three vaulted bays of ridges, followed by an apse in a cul-de-four. In the 16th century, a polygonal elevation was added above the nave and the abside, perhaps for defensive purposes, partially distorting the original vaults. The bell tower to the west and the renovated door in the 17th century complete its architecture.

The interior decoration reveals remarkable elements: besides the preroman altars, Romanesque murals (1972) evoke apocalyptic scenes, studied by Marcel Durliat in 1977. The bedside, pierced by three simple windows, is characteristic of the Lombard Romanesque style, with leesenes and arcatures in brown moellons. The uniform colour of the stones, including the arches, distinguishes Saint-Polycarp from nearby sites such as Saint-Étienne de Blomac, where the black basalt was used.

Property of the municipality since its classification, the abbey illustrates the evolution of a place of monastic worship in parish church, while preserving traces of its defensive past (reduced hexagonal on the abside) and liturgical. Its history reflects the architectural and functional transformations of religious buildings in Occitanie, between the Middle Ages and the modern era.

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