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Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame de Garein, located in the Landes department, is a religious building originally built in the 12th century in the form of a simple rectangular nave with a bell tower. Its small openings, close to murderers, and its local materials (stone of the country) testify to this first phase. The church was placed under a triple patronage: the Virgin Mary, Saint Anthony (father of monasticism) and Saint James, because of her proximity to a secondary road leading to Compostela. Its history remains poorly documented, but it is known that its porch was burned during the Wars of Religion and that it had only two nearby houses until the 19th century, forming the heart of the village.

In the 13th century, the church was enlarged with the addition of an apse housing the choir, while the old bell tower was raised. The openings remained narrow, as can be seen today. The materials used, combining bricks and stones of varying quality, reflect the resources available at the time. The fortification of the building, although not dated precisely, could go back to this period or the wars of Religion. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, a warhead vault replaced the original wooden ceiling, partly based on a 12th century frame still in place. The church was enhanced, and a sculpted passage, visible between the roofs of the abside and the nave, date from that time.

At the beginning of the 18th century, a lateral chapel was built on the south side, probably in response to population growth. A stone porch then replaced the old wooden porch, destroyed by fire. The openings were enlarged and stained glass windows installed. At the end of the 19th century, major restorations altered the porch according to the tastes of the era, before later work made it look like the 18th century. Finally, a complete restoration in 2008–2009 kept its historic character. The church, classified as Historical Monument in 1968, thus illustrates almost nine centuries of architectural and religious evolution.

Today, the building consists of a main nave with two arched bays, extended by a slightly narrower three-sided choir, topped by a vault. A south collateral, covered with a plaster crib, and a sacristy complete the whole. The bell tower, typical of the Landes, is preceded by a rectangular porch. The capitals carved from plant motifs and the human or animal figures in the nave date from Gothic changes. The bedside, higher than the nave, would have served as a defensive reduction, while murderers remain on the north facade, remains of the ancient fortifications.

The paintings of the choir, made between the 13th and 14th centuries, and the vault built during the Hundred Years War underline the dual role of the church: place of worship and protection. The dogive vaulting of the nave, probably completed around 1600, after the Wars of Religion, marks the transition to a more peaceful period. The current porch, rebuilt in 1889, and recent restorations have preserved this heritage, a witness to the successive adaptations of a religious, defensive and community building.

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