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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte, located in Couzou in the Lot, was built in the 17th century on the initiative of Jean Magdelon de La Grange to replace the former parish church of Alzou, considered too far away. The latter, in debt, died in 1655, and his property was seized in 1656. The building, close to the castle of La Pannonie, became the property of Pierre-Antoine Vidal de Lapize in 1685, marking the beginning of a period of transformation linked to the history of the estate.

In the 18th century, the church was equipped with a bell tower and a golden wooden altarpiece during the reconstruction of the castle. In the mid-19th century, Marie Louis Charles Vidal de Lapize enlarged the building with a new choir and side chapels (sacristy dated 1864). The separation of the church and the state in 1905 led the owners of the castle to become owners, before leaving it in 1981 to a conservation association.

Architecturally, the church illustrates the Quercy heritage with its stone bellow walls and its lauze cover, partially restored in 2019–2020. Its interior houses a altarpiece, three altars, and a bell of 1872 named Félicie. Adjacent to the church, a parish cemetery gathers the graves of local families. A commemorative plaque pays tribute to the 12 parish soldiers who died during the First World War.

The parish registers (1724–99), kept in the department archives of Cahors, document the religious life of the hamlet. The building, which was listed as a historical monument in 2012, bears witness to the close links between seigneury, village community and rural architectural heritage.

Originally a medieval monastic barn destroyed during the Hundred Years' War, the site was transformed into a den in the 15th century, then into a castle in the 16th–12th centuries. The Wars of Religion left traces there (cannon towers), while subsequent adjustments reflect the evolution of liturgical and seigneurial needs.

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