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Origin and history

The chapel Notre-Dame de Coulaures is based on a 13th century legend. According to tradition, the lord of Lafaye de Chardeuil, threatened with shipwreck in the Gulf of Biscay, vowed to build a chapel dedicated to the Virgin if he survived. Returning safely, he erected a small chapel five feet wide on an arch of the bridge crossing Isle near Coulaures. This first modest building was taken away by the Isle floods after 1450, during a flood that also destroyed part of the bridge.

The chapel was rebuilt after eight years of calamities (hail, floods) attributed by the inhabitants to its destruction. This time it was built not on the bridge, but near the parish church, on a land given by the family of Lestrade de Conty. The dimensions rose to 23 feet wide for 10 feet deep. From then on, annual processions were held on Pentecost Monday, and the chapel became a renowned place of devotion, attracting even members of the chapter of Périgueux for the feast of the Assumption.

In the 17th century, the chapel was enlarged by the family of Lestrade de Conty, increasing its length to 33 feet while keeping its width. A 10-foot-high grid allowed pilgrims to see the interior without entering. During the Revolution, sold as national property to citizen Grandchamp Henry, it escaped a transformation into cabaret thanks to the opposition of the inhabitants. The statue of the Virgin was saved by a godly woman and then resettled after the troubles. Restored in 1861, it now preserves a carved altar with columns and the stained glass windows of Jean Besseyrias (1876).

Ranked a historical monument in 1938, the chapel illustrates the perigordine religious architecture, with its rectangular plan and its walled ceiling. Its history combines popular devotion, local legends and resilience to natural disasters, while reflecting the political and social upheavals of France, from the Ancien Régime to the Revolution.

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