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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativity church of Cénac-et-Saint-Julien, located in the Dordogne department, is a Catholic religious building, the oldest of which dates back to the 12th century. It was founded as a priory dependent on Moissac Abbey, probably around 1130, after confirmation of monastic rights. Its Romanesque architecture, marked by richly decorated capitals, illustrates Moissac's artistic influence, with allegorical themes such as the Resurrection of Lazarus or the original Fall.

The priory experienced a fabled period thanks to the veneration of a disappeared crucifix, the Digne vote, compared to the relics of Charroux and Lucca. However, his history was marked by conflicts: pillage by roadmen in 1378, partial destruction during the Wars of Religion (1589), and excommunication of the Prior in 1304 after a confrontation with the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Successive reconstructions, especially in the 15th century (ogival vaults) and in the 20th century (neoRoman restoration), partially altered its original structure.

Ranked a historic monument in 1897, the church was restored between 1898 and 1901 under the direction of Henri Rapine, who chose to return to his 12th century state. The excavations revealed capitals and traces of the Romanesque vaults in the cradle. The choir, the apsidioles and the transept, the only elements of the 12th century preserved, now bear witness to its monastic past. The 44 capitals and 18 modillons, combining geometric motifs and biblical scenes, make it a major site of perigordinal Romanesque art.

After the Revolution, the building, very degraded, was summarily repaired before drainage works (1912-1913) to counter moisture. A communal property since the 19th century, it remains a place of worship and a protected architectural heritage, illustrating the links between Moissac, the Black Perigord and southern Romanesque art.

Historical sources, such as the Chronicle of Aymeric de Peyrac (abbé de Moissac, 1377-1406), attribute the foundation to Abbé Anquitil (1085-1105), although the construction was dated from the 12th century by its style. The carved leopard of the portal, similar to that of Moissac, reinforces this artistic filiation. The destructions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (clocher, nave) explain the subsequent reconstruction campaigns, including that of 1531 for the transept and the bell tower entrusted to masons of Domme.

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