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Origin and history

The Church of Notre-Dame de Hautefage-la-Tour has its origin in a medieval chapel built above a miraculous fountain, renowned for curing sterility. According to tradition, Anne de Beaujeu designed a girl after her visit, attracting donations from pilgrims, including Alain d'Albret (Henri IV's great-grandfather), who financed the building of the church. The present building, dated from the end of the 15th century by historian Georges Tholin, incorporates Gothic elements such as vaults on cross of warheads and a carved north portal, probably added to the 16th century under the influence of the bishops della Rovere, builders of the nearby tower.

During the Wars of Religion, the church, then fortified chapel, was looted in 1561 by Protestants, losing its ornaments. In 1595 Bishop Nicolas de Villars made it a parish church and consecrated the high altar in 1598. The choir, raised to house the miraculous spring under its altar, was described in 1632 with a lateral chapel dedicated to Saint Louis (or Saint Éloi in 1668). The presbytery, adjacent to the south flank, dates from the 17th and 18th centuries, with exterior openings characteristic of this period.

The architecture combines a two-span nave vaulted with warheads, a bedside with cut strips, and a preserved primitive frame. The north gate, with mutilated coat of arms, and the neighbouring episcopal tower (della Rovere) bear witness to the links with the local religious power. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1921, the church underwent restorations in the 19th and 20th centuries, notably after landslides (west foothills in 1871, draining the spring in 1993). The presbytery, registered in 1994, completes this heritage complex.

The miraculous fountain, the heart of the initial devotion, always flows under the altar, its waters flowing through a canal beneath the building. The baptismal fonts, transferred from Saint Peter's Church in Sarrede during the Wars of Religion, recall the religious upheavals of the time. Pastoral visits of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Bishops Claude Joly, Nicolas de Villars) document its evolution, while modern works aim to preserve this place full of history and legends.

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