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Origin and history

The church Saint-André de Bernis, located in the Gard en Occitanie department, is a building dating back to the 12th century. Mentioned from 1119 under the name of Ecclesia Sancti-Andreæ de Berniz, it preserves from its Romanesque period a richly carved portal and a nave, the rest having been destroyed during the wars of Religion and fire in 1703. The village of Bernis, for its part, is attested as early as the 10th century in the archives of the cathedral of Nîmes, in various forms such as Villa Bernices (920) or Castrum de Bernizes (1007).

The reconstruction of the church spanned several centuries: a first campaign was conducted in 1680 by the mason Jean Cossefière after the ravages of the Wars of Religion, followed by a second in the eighteenth century to repair the damage of the 1703 fire. At that time, a seigneurial chapel was added to the north, with a dome to the imperial. The current bell tower, with its arrow, dates from 1854, according to the plans of architect Revoil. The building, marked by its turbulent history, has been listed as historical monuments since 2006.

Among the remarkable elements of the church, the Western Romanesque portal is distinguished by its capitals adorned with sirens, claws and interlacs, as well as by a rare Wisigothic solar wheel. Inside, a column of the nave is in reality a 2.90 m Roman mile terminal, reused and classified since 1906. It bears an inscription dedicated to Emperor Claude. During the Revolution, the church was briefly transformed into a temple of reason (1794) before regaining its cult function.

The architecture of the facade, made of cut stone, combines an oculus and the Romanesque portal, while the bell tower, rebuilt in the nineteenth century, suffered repeated damage by lightning (1885, 1895). Today, the church belongs to the municipality and is protected as part of an architectural heritage protection zone. Several associated liturgical objects are listed in the Palissy database.

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