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Origin and history

The church Saint-Hilaire de Guigneville is a religious building located in the Loiret department, in the Centre-Val de Loire region. Built from the 12th century, it underwent renovations in the 13th, 15th and 16th centuries. It is distinguished by its two-nave architecture, with a 13th-century high nave and a revised low nave in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its portal, modillons and screw staircase are notable architectural elements.

The church houses a replica of the painting La Visitation de la Vierge de Jean Jouvenet, originally made for Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in the 17th century and classified as a Historic Monument in 1908. This copy was originally intended for the Abbey of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire. The building, registered in the inventory of Historic Monuments since 6 March 1928, belongs to the commune of Guigneville and falls under the Diocese of Orléans.

Geographically, the church is located in the Beauce Natural Region, about 7.5 km northwest of Pithiviers. It is part of a parish context linked to the ecclesiastical province of Tours and the dean Beauce-Pithiviers. Its architecture combines medieval elements, such as hard stone capitals and masonry tympanos, with subsequent additions, such as the blind plaster arches of the sanctuary.

Access to the building is from departmental road 22, and its official address is 4 Place Saint-Hilaire, in Guigneville. The monument, a communal property, illustrates the architectural and religious evolution of the Beauce through the centuries, while preserving traces of its medieval origin and its later transformations.

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