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Origin and history

The Saint-Jean d'Aygues Vives church, located at Aygues-Vives in the commune of Saint-Pastour (Lot-et-Garonne), is a Catholic building dating back to the 12th century. Originally built for a castle today disappeared, it was then attached to the castle of Aygues-Vives from the fourteenth century. Only the Romanesque choir, vaulted in cul-de-four and stunned by three buttresses, remains the original construction. The absence of capitals or sculpted decoration makes its precise dating impossible, but its regular cut stone apparatus bears witness to a careful realization.

The nave, lower than the choir, seems to have been rebuilt after the Hundred Years War (XV century), as evidenced by the visible coat of arms, potentially those of the Raffin family, lords of Aygues-Vives and Higherive. The latter, allies with the Valens (teachers of the place in the 15th century via the marriage of Marguerite de Valens with Herman de Raffin), marked the history of the site. The western gate, in a broken arch adorned with a tore, and a door murated in segment arch suggest work campaigns in the 15th and 18th centuries. The porch, which was later added, dates from the late 18th or early 19th century.

The church, surrounded by a small cemetery with panoramic views of the area, was restored in 1897 (replacement of the panel, repairs of the facade mentioned in 1873). It would have belonged to the town hall of Saint-Pastour for a century. Ranked a historic monument in 1950, it retains traces of polychromy under its current bandage, including a black band evoking a possible funerary liter related to Raffin. Its elongated plan, combining simple nave and narrow choir, reflects the successive adaptations of a building with both seigneurial and parish vocation.

The local archives, such as the fonds of the Raffin family charter, and the references of the Ministry of Culture (Mérimée base) complete the sources of this heritage. Today isolated on the hillside, the church illustrates the architectural and social evolution of a rural place of worship, from a castral chapel to a communal monument.

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