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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativity church of Molières, located in the Dordogne, was founded in 1282 by Edward I of England, with a charter of customs granted in 1286. Unlike the other bastids, it was built away from the central square, perhaps due to a poorly planned urban route or a pre-existing church. Its initial architecture, inspired by perigordin models such as Beaumont-du-Périgord, included a single nave dogive vault, a flat bedside, and a western facade flanked by two towers (only the north tower remains today). The foothills, considered insufficient, will cause the collapse of the vaults in the 18th century.

In the 15th century, the bedside window was redesigned in a flamboyant style, while in 1771 the ruined vaults were replaced by a wooden panel, the work of carpenters Bernard Clerc and Joseph Loubiat. A drawing by Léo Drouyn (1846) attests to his partially ruined state: collapsed cover on the second span and disappearance of the south tower. Between 1847 and 1850, a major restoration enhanced the walls by 2 metres, replaced the panelling with a basket handle ceiling, and erected a neo-Gothic chapel at the location of the disappeared south tower. The present rose on the facade, absent from the drawing of 1846, probably dates from this period.

The end of the 19th century marked a radical transformation of the bedside: the addition of an apse to five sides between two parallel walls, pierced by neogothic bays, perhaps aimed at preparing an extension into a three-nave church. The stained glass windows, made around 1886 by the Bordeaux glass master Henri Feur, illustrate scenes of the life of Christ and the Virgin. Other restoration campaigns took place in 1908 (consolidation), 1926 (farms), and between 1979-1982 (abandonment of the panel for apparent farms, restoration of original windows). A baptismal tank decorated with trilobed arches, discovered in 1982, was reinstated in the building.

The church, partially classified as a historical monument in 1948 (clocher and facades) and in 2013 in its entirety, bears witness to the architectural evolutions and historical hazards of the bastide. Burned in 1580 by Captain Chans de Monsac during the Wars of Religion, it also underwent repairs in the 18th century documented by Jean Secret. Its rectangular plan (32 m long, 12 m wide), its unique nave with four spans, and its 13th century square bell tower (intact) make it a remarkable example of the churches of perigord bastide, despite its unusual distance from the city centre.

University studies, such as that of Evelyne Lemasson, point to two hypotheses to explain his out-of-town location: either it existed at the bastide and was integrated a posteriori to the plot, or its location was poorly anticipated. Its capacity (800 people) suggests an ambitious bastide project, perhaps aborted. Recent restorations (1980s) sought to regain the original gothic spirit, while preserving the additions of the 19th century, such as the enhanced dropural walls.

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