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Origin and history

The church Notre-Dame-de-l'Assumption d'Atur, located in the village of Atur (comune of Boulazac Isle Manoire, Dordogne), is a religious building built in the 12th–13th centuries. It retains a Romanesque style despite later modifications, such as the plaster vault added in the 19th century. His history is poorly documented, but traces of destruction related to the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion are probable. The oldest known document, a canonical visit report of 1688, describes an un arched nave, unpaved and without stained glass.

In 1757 the arch of the choir was restored, as indicated by an inscription. In the 19th century, major works were undertaken: in 1812, a particular alerted the prefect about the state of the building, and in 1876, the architect Meunier de Périgueux realized the plaster vault and lattis. Recent archaeological discoveries have revealed murals from the 14th to 15th centuries, including a mural masked under a 19th-century painting layer, which was discovered in 2016. These elements reflect its architectural and artistic evolution.

The church, with a single nave of 30 meters long, presents a 15th century south portal decorated with angelots and a grimacing head. It was initially fortified, as evidenced by the remaining mâchicoulis and the curved square bell tower. The chapel of the Virgin, vaulted with warheads, houses carved capes (angelot and dragon) and a defense room accessible by a spiral staircase. Its furniture includes an octagonal 15th-century baptismal tank, an 18th-century altarpiece, and stained glass windows signed by Henri Audeynaud (1870) and Louis Martin (XX century).

Ranked a historic monument in 1947, the church protects two remarkable objects: the baptismal tank and a Louis XV sacristy cabinet. Its architecture thus combines medieval heritage (octogonal cupola, Romanesque cradle) and later additions, reflecting the historical upheavals of the region. The successive restorations, such as those of 1989 and 2016, allowed to preserve its painted decorations and defensive structure, rare testimonies of the central Périgord.

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