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Origin and history

The Church of St. Stephen of Briare was born in the sixth century, when a chapel dedicated to St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, replaced a Roman temple dedicated to Bacchus. Mentioned in 596 by the statutes of Saint Aunaire, bishop of Auxerre, it was rebuilt in the 13th century to welcome a thousand faithful. Damaged by the flood of the Loire in 1856 and considered too small for an expanding city thanks to the manufacture of enamels, it was demolished to give way to a new building.

The construction of the present church, financed almost entirely by the heirs of Jean-Félix Bapterosses (Alfred Loreau and Paul Yver), began in 1890 after administrative delays related to local disputes and expropriations. Designed by René Dusserre, student of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, it was inaugurated on 8 December 1895 by Bishop Stanislas-Arthur-Xavier Touchet. Ceded to the commune in 1896 for a symbolic franc, she obtained the Historical Monument label in 1987.

The architecture mixes neo-Byzantine style with the neo-Gothic bell tower of 56 meters, a rarity for the era. The nave of 50 meters, supported by carved columns, celebrates the local industry: a capital represents a worker making up a mosaic, decorated with pearls of the enamel manufacture. Inside, lined with mosaics designed by Eugène Grasset and made by the artisans of Briare, includes stained glass windows by Felix Gaudin illustrating the signs of the zodiac, an originality for a church.

The works of art include a cross path carved by Fabio Stecchi (1904), a statue of St Stephen by Louis Dideron (1950s), and statues of St Roch and St Louis by Robert Souvigny, a self-taught artist active in the post-war Brazilian cultural life. A new altar, inlaid with a reliquary stone blessed by Bishop Dupanloup and decorated with mosaics by Olivier Delhoume, was consecrated in 1996.

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