Church of Saint Marcel de Beychac-et-Caillau en Gironde

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Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint-Marcel de Beychac-et-Caillau, built in the 11th century in the hamlet of Beychac (Gironde), is a hybrid testimony of Romanesque and Gothic styles. Only the transept, the choir and the sanctuary in the Hemicycle retain their original Romanesque structure, while the nave and bell tower date from the end of the thirteenth century. Documents from the Archdiocese of Bordeaux attest to its existence in 1340. The building, rebuilt in the 17th and 19th centuries, incorporates defensive elements added during the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion, especially in the bedside.

The bell tower, transformed in 1874, once served as a dungeon with its murderers and superimposed floors. It houses a bell of 1762, decorated with inscriptions mentioning its godfather and godmother (Mr.Marc Antoine Duperier and his wife), as well as the parish priest Barbier and the fabrician Victor Monteilh. The nave, vaulted in brick and plaster, was once covered with an apparent structure. Its interior reveals six capital novels with moralizing sculptures, including a rare parturition scene symbolizing fleshly sin, inspired by the Gospel according to St Matthew (5:28).

Romanesque iconography, concentrated in the choir, depicts a lesson on lust through naked female figures and expressive male faces (horror, disapproval, lust). These sculptures, little visible since the nave but clear for the clerics, could warn against temptation. Outside, the abside is divided into seven compartments with a dazier headband and degraded modillons representing profane or monstrous scenes (eating man, animal heads). The stained glass windows and the Chemin de Croix (1942-1943, by Georges de Sonneville) complete a furniture including a 17th century canvas restored in 1999, representing Saint Marcel with Saint Catherine and Saint Sebastian.

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