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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Martin de Chalivoy-Milon, also known as the church of Saint-Éloi or Saint-Sylvain, is a Catholic religious building located in the Cher department, in the Centre-Val de Loire region. First dedicated to Saint Sylvain under the patronage of the abbey Saint-Sulpice of Bourges as early as 819, it was first mentioned in 1032 under this term. The present Romanesque church was built in the 12th century (2nd and 4th quarters), after a conflict between the local lord Raymond de Chalivoy and the abbey about tithes, resolved in 1126. It then became a prioral church, before being enriched with a lateral bell tower at the end of the same century.

The building is distinguished by its medieval murals, including a giant mapmemond (6 meters in diameter) that is now extinct, described in the 19th century as mixing biblical myths and fantastic representations (such as sciapods or Blemmyes). These frescoes, covered with plaster until the 19th century, decorated the entire church: those of the choir, partially restored, show crowned martyrs, apostles and a paschal lamb in the centre of a cross. The nave, originally arched as a Romanesque cradle, was transformed in 1885 by the addition of dogive vaults, resulting in the destruction of many paintings, including the mappemond.

The church has undergone several modifications over the centuries: reconstruction of the structure in the 15th century, addition of a sacristy in the 17th century (replaced in 1837), and renovation of the upper parts of the bell tower in 1951. Classified as a Historical Monument by decree of 13 July 1911, it retains remarkable architectural elements, such as a tympanum decorated with a lamb carried by angels, and traces of its prioral past linked to the Abbey of Bourges. Its history reflects the artistic and religious evolutions of the region, from the Middle Ages to the modern era.

The 19th century sources, such as the descriptions of Abbé Lenoir (curé de Charly) and of Alphonse Buhot de Kersers, highlight the iconographic richness of the church, where biblical scenes, allegories and representations of legendary peoples were found. These testimonies, though partial, offer a unique insight into medieval visual culture in Berry, where churches served as educational materials for the faithful. The disappearance of the mappemond, compared by historians to other examples such as those of Charly, illustrates the fragility of the wall heritage in the face of subsequent restorations.

Today, the Church of St Martin remains a major testimony of Berrichon Romanesque art, marked by its large apparatus (chew and choir) and its painted decorations. Its lateral bell tower, its 19th century sacristy and the remains of its frescoes make it a historical and symbolic site, linked to the influence of Benedictine Bourges and to local religious life for over a thousand years.

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