Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Church of Notre-Dame d'Avon-les-Roches, located on Rue de Feuet in Avon-les-Roches (Indre-et-Loire), is mentioned for the first time in 1088 during a donation to the Abbey of Noyers. Between 1200 and 1250, it passed under the property of Beaumont-lès-Tours Abbey. This monument, originally Romanesque, is almost entirely rebuilt in the 13th century to adopt an elongated plane: a nave with two vessels (principal and northern collateral) of three spans each, and a choir with pentagonal apse, all arched dogives curved. Only the porch, the south wall, the bell tower and the south gate remain from the twelfth century, the latter probably having been moved.

The reconstruction of the 13th century is part of the Angevin style, characteristic of the region, with curved vaults and carved capital columns. The porch, covered in appentis, has a gate in the middle of the hangar framed by twin bays, while the square bell tower, surmounted by an octagonal stone arrow (refurbishing in 1823), dominates the building. An inscription engraved in the church commemorates the death of Charles the Temerary in 1476, testifying to his use as a memorial medium: "AN MYL IIIC LXXVI in front of Nan[cy] in Lorrene was killed the Duke of Bourgoigne".

Ranked a historic monument in 1908, the church retains remarkable furniture: a benigner and 12th-century baptismal fonts, a 17th-century golden wooden altarpiece, as well as liturgical elements from the 19th and 20th centuries, signed by local artisans such as Dumont and Lelièvre (factors of organ), Auguste Evellin (goldsmithy), or Pierre Pouplard (religious ornaments). The numerous graffiti on the walls add a historical and popular dimension to this place of worship, reflecting religious and social practices throughout the centuries.

External links