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Origin and history

The church of the Décollation-de-Saint-Jean-Baptiste, located in Saint-Jean-de-la-Blaquière (Herault, Occitanie), is a Romanesque building dating from the first half of the 12th century. Its bedside, typical of the Lombard Romanesque style, is distinguished by its Lombard bands, geometric modillons and a double frieze of inverted gear teeth. The cul-de-four vaulted L-abside houses three windows framed with carved columns, reflecting a neat decoration both on the outside and inside.

The site is attested as early as 804 under the name Rainias in the cartular of the Gellone Abbey, with a first mention of a church in 942 (S. Joannis de Plenis). The present building, built around 1100-1125 for the abside and 1150 for the gate, has undergone reshuffles (the vault of the nave redone, addition of lateral chapels in the seventeenth-XVIIIth centuries). Ranked a Historical Monument in 1951 (excluding side chapels), the church illustrates the Romanesque architectural evolution in the Lodevois.

The church was a central place for the medieval community, linked to the bishopric of Lodève as early as 1283 and united with the episcopal lie in 1410 by Pope Alexander V. Its architecture, marked by bolt holes and arches, bears witness to late Romanesque constructive techniques. The lateral chapels, added much later, contrast with the purity of the Romanesque choir, preserved despite subsequent modifications.

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