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Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame de Blanquefort-sur-Briolance, located in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, is a 12th century Romanesque building. It originally belonged to a priory dependent on the Abbey of La Sauve-Majeure, as evidenced by a charter of 1142 signed by the bishop of Agen Raymond-Bernard of Fossat. This document confirms its existence from the beginning of the 12th century under the name of the dicclesiam of Milac. The church, then simple priory, played a central role in local religious life, notably through the perception of tithes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The church architecture reflects several periods of construction and modification. The unique ship, completed by an apse in a cul-de-four arched hemicycle, dates from the 12th century. The triumphal arch, adorned with carved capitals (pine apples, volutes, doves sharing a chalice), supports an original arcade bell tower, transformed in the seventeenth century into a square tower by adding three walls. The nave, originally lambrissed, was equipped with brick vaults in the 19th century, while the southern chapel and sacristy were added respectively in the 16th and 19th centuries.

The Notre Dame church was listed in the inventory of historical monuments in 1925, recognizing its heritage value. Among its peculiarities are the enigmatic niches integrated with the prominent piedroits of the triumphal arch, whose function remains undetermined, as well as a southern window of the bedside with Gothic reamping, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. These elements illustrate the stylistic and functional evolution of the building over the centuries, while maintaining traces of its Romanesque origin.

The priory of Milhac, on which the church depended, was linked to the Benedictine abbey of La Sauve-Majeure, founded in the 11th century near Bordeaux. This dependence partly explains the architectural and liturgical influence observable in the building, as the lateral altars reminiscent of those of San Juan de Duero church in Castile. The management of tithes by priors in the 16th and 17th centuries also underlines its economic importance for the surrounding parishes, notably Blanquefort and Veyrines.

Outside, the abside has a cornice with perforated metopes, characteristic of regional Romanesque art. The stone altar, contemporary of the initial construction, and the absence of a tabernacle reinforce the sober and ancient character of the building. The successive transformations — the southern chapel, the room above the choir, the modern vaults — bear witness to the adaptations to liturgical and community needs, while preserving the original Romanesque structure.

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