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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church Saint-Sulpice de Bérou-la-Mulotière, located in the department of Eure-et-Loir in the Centre-Val de Loire region, dates from the 4th quarter of the 16th century. Ranked a Historic Monument in 2013, it is distinguished by a nave flanked by two chapels, including the northern chapel adorned with murals and vaulted paintings made around 1540-1550. These sets, organized in ten successive campaigns, combine biblical scenes (Jesus and Marie-Madeleine, Last Judgment), architectural elements in trompe-l'oeil (rock sheltering a penitent Madeleine), and religious symbols (angels carrying the instruments of the Passion). The vault features polychrome semi-relief medallions representing busts, while a funeral liter highlights the commemorative aspect of the ensemble.

The municipality of Bérou-la-Mulotière, rural and with 345 inhabitants in 2023, is part of the attraction area of Verneuil d'Avre and d'Iton. Its architectural heritage is limited to this church, a witness of late Renaissance religious art in rural areas. The building, a communal property, was preserved in its entirety (classification including the entire building, cadastre AB 107). Its state of conservation and the richness of its painted decorations make it a rare example of a chapel church painted in Eure-et-Loir, an area marked by a medieval heritage and reborn scattered.

The geographical context places Bérou-la-Mulotière at the limit of Normandy (near the department of l'Eure), in an area of climate transition between oceanic and altered ocean. Local natural hazards (flooding by the Avre or the Meuvette, withdrawal-swelling of clays) did not alter the structure of the church, whose exact location is 1 Avre Street. Its material history, documented by Monumentum and the Merimée base, reveals a vocation both cult and memorial, typical of parish buildings of the modern era.

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