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Key figures

Origin and history

The Church of Notre-Dame-et-Sainte-Catherine of Arengosse is a Catholic religious building located in the Department of Landes, New Aquitaine. It replaces a first medieval church, Notre-Dame, erected in the 12th century according to Prosper Mérimée. The current neo-Gothic building is distinguished by its three vessels, its three-paned apse, and a bell tower with a reserve. The materials used include bellows, Angoulême stone, roof tiles, and bell tower slate.

The first church of Arengosse, dated the 12th century, underwent partial renovations in 1859 and 1860 under the direction of diocesan architect Jules Sibien and entrepreneur Peyruqueou. This includes the construction of an ogival bell tower, but the condition of the building remains precarious. A total reconstruction was therefore undertaken in 1893, leading to the present church, blessed on 4 April 1894 by Bishop Delannoy.

The reconstruction is financed by local personalities, including Baron Gérard, owner of the Château de Castillon, and the Bourneau and Lareillet families. The architect Jules François Dupouy supervises this project, giving birth to a building marked by capitals carved with leaves and hooks, and a vaulted nave lit by quadrilobed oculi.

The church is now attached to the parish of Saint Joseph of Brassenx and to the diocese of Aire and Dax. It bears witness to the neo-Gothic religious architecture of the late 19th century, while preserving traces of its medieval history and successive transformations.

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