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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Georges-sur-Loire, located in the hamlet of Saint-Georges-sur-Loire (comune of Rochecorbon, Indre-et-Loire), is a religious building with medieval origins. Built between the 11th and 13th centuries, it served as a parish church before the fusion of Saint-Georges with Rochecorbon in 1808. Its architecture combines a nave of the 11th century and a square choir of the 11th-XIIth centuries, while its structure, dated 2013, is one of the oldest Romanesque structures preserved in France. The building, partially troglodyte, houses underground rooms classified with the church since 2016.

The interior walls of the church, covered with lime-covered boudigeons at different times, preserved wall paintings dating from the 12th century (such as the Wailing of feet on the north wall) and the early 13th century (a representation of La Cène). These frescoes, as well as stones adorned with interlacing re-used in the masonry, suggest the presence of an earlier building on the site. The church, classified as a historical monument in 1948 and partly in 1996 before its complete classification in 2016, illustrates the artistic and architectural evolution of the Tourangelle region in the Middle Ages.

The church of Saint-Georges-sur-Loire, owned by the commune of Rochecorbon, is also distinguished by its geographical context close to Tours, in an area marked by troglodytic habitat. The underground rooms, combined with the building, reinforce its unique character. Although some of the choir's paintings are less well preserved, the ensemble offers a rare testimony of religious and artistic life in Touraine between the 11th and 13th centuries. Its exact address, 21 Rue Saint-Georges, and its Insee code (37203) are precisely located in the Indre-et-Loire department, in the Centre-Val de Loire region.

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