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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint-Étienne d'Ars-en-Ré, located on the island of Ré in Charente-Maritime, finds its origins in the sixth century in the form of a priory dependent on the abbey of Saint-Michel-en-l-Herm. In the 12th century, two archaic crossovers, decorated with Romanesque motifs, and a 13-metre tower were erected, marking the transition to Gothic art. The portal, a transitional style between Romanesque and Gothic, dates from this period, with elaborate sculptures and a height of 5.62 m.

In the 15th century, the building was enlarged and equipped with a 40-metre flamboyant Gothic bell tower, painted in black and white to serve as a sailor's lover, visible more than 20 km away. This octagonal bell tower, housing three bells (Françoise, Marie-Victoire, Louise), nearly collapsed in 1840 during a storm. The Romanesque nave (8.30 m high) and the lower side with the angeline vaults illustrate this stylistic duality.

Ranked a Historical Monument in 1903, the church underwent major transformations: the 11th or 12th century choir was replaced in the 16th or 17th century by a nave with three ships, and lateral chapels were added between 1639 and 1651. The building, a place of burial for notables in the 17th and 18th centuries, welcomed personalities such as Georges Clemenceau and Sadi Carnot. Entirely restored between 2017 and 2022, it preserves 17th century religious representations and a prioral home mentioned in 1701, sold as national property in 1791.

Culturally, the bell tower appears in the comic strip Raphael 4 and the Ring of Silver (2020). Its hybrid architecture—a novel for the portal, Gothic for the nave and the bell tower—makes it a unique testimony of island history, mixing religious, funeral and maritime functions.

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