Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Ternand, located on a promontory occupied since prehistoric times, houses exceptional murals dating from the late 11th or 12th century. These sets include a Christ in majesty surrounded by symbols of the evangelists, musical angels, a veiled Virgin, as well as scenes of the Nativity and the Escape in Egypt. An extinct representation of Saint Gregory and a cleric, documented in 1950, reflected the original iconographic richness. The frescoes, restored in the 1980s, now suffer from the humidity of the crypt, which threatens their conservation.

The building rises on ancient foundations, in a historical context marked by the rivalry between two local religious sites: the priory Saint-Victor, dominant in the High Middle Ages thanks to the presence of monks, and the church Saint-Jean. Ternand later became the capital of a vicarerie of thirty-two parishes under the authority of the archbishops of Lyon, who owned a castle with a dungeon. Ruined in the sixteenth century by the troops of Baron des Adrets, the castle was never rebuilt, and the archbishops gradually disinterested from the site, reducing it to a source of income while maintaining the church in condition.

The crypt and choir of the church were classified as Historic Monument in 1951, followed by an inscription of the entire building in 2019. The monument, owned by the commune, illustrates the strategic and spiritual importance of Ternand, linked to the religious and seigneurial history of the Lyon region. His Romanesque decor, despite the degradations, remains a rare testimony of medieval sacred art in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

External links