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Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint-Blaise, built at the end of the 11th century, was the main church of the Priory of Saint-Sauveur-en-Rue. Consecrated by Guy of Burgundy (later Pope Calixte II), it replaced an earlier building. Its medieval architecture included a semicircular apse adorned with carved capitals (including one representing a man spitting snakes), a pre-existing crypt, and walls reinforced in the 14th century to serve as defence. A 16th-century gallery, carrying the weapons of the Prior Nectaire of Saint-Nectaire, overlooking the nave, almost blind of stained glass windows.

In 1898, the church, which had become obsolete, was originally planned for a renovation entrusted to the architect Sainte-Marie Perrin (known for the Basilica of Fourvière). However, in 1900 a report revealed the impossibility of saving the structure: a wall had collapsed. Despite the opposition of the inhabitants, the church was destroyed in 1901, retaining only a few remains (chapitals, crypt, arms of Nectaire de Saint-Nectaire). The Jarrosson family largely financed the reconstruction, completed in 1902.

The present church, enlarged and lightened, reproduces Romanesque elements ( semicircular apse, double columns with leafy capitals) while adopting more marked geometric shapes. Its raised bell tower houses six bells and four clocks. A bas-relief of 1905, adorning the portal, celebrates local figures (Calixte II, Marcellin Champagnat) and anticlerical resistance symbols (Pie X, Jean-Marie Vianney). The medieval crypt, still present but inaccessible, and the remains of the old church (exposed near the festive hall) bear witness to its past.

The monument also illustrates the political tensions of the time: the destruction of 1901 coincided with the law of separation of churches and the state (1905), while the bas-relief, commanded by the community, displayed a marked opposition to anti-clerical policies. The figures represented — founders of the priory, local saints, or figures of the Catholic reconquest — underline the deep religious anchor of Saint-Sauveur-en-Rue, linked to his history as Benedictine priory.

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