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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Baudile de Tornac, built in the 12th century, is an emblematic example of Romanesque architecture in Occitanie. It was built by Benedictine monks expelled from Nîmes, who settled in the local monastery, originally dedicated to St Stephen since the 9th century. This monastery, mentioned under various names (Tornagus in 814, Tornado in 922), became a clunisian priory in the 12th–13th centuries, before adopting the double term Saint-Étienne-et-Saint-Sauveur in the 16th century.

The church, destroyed in the 16th century and rebuilt, was the victim of a fire in 1702. Its semicircular bedside, adorned with archatures and geometric patterns, illustrates the Languedocian Romanesque style, with traces of monspeliensis. Ranked a historic monument in 1911, it benefited from major restorations between 1984 and 1994, led by a local association under the auspices of the Historical Monuments.

The site, linked to the evangelization of Nîmes by Saint Baudile (IIIth century), also reflects the regional religious history: the parish appeared in 1345 under the name Parrochia Sancti Baudilii, integrated into the diocese of Alais. The building, with a single nave and cradle vault, preserves medieval elements such as pilasters and side chapels forming a symbolic transept.

Its status as Benedictine priory, confirmed by sources of the twelfth century (Abbatia Tornacensis), and its supposed consecration by Pope Gélase II in 1118 (according to Monumentum), underline its spiritual and architectural importance. Today, it dominates a landscape of vines and cypresses, near the ruins of Tornac Abbey.

The church embodies the religious and political transformations of the region: from the diocese of Nîmes to that of Alais, clunisian influence, and successive adaptations (reconstruction in the seventeenth century). Its bell tower and western façade, marked by foothills and a door in the middle of the hangar, testify to this evolution.

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