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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Saint-Martin de Canourgues church, located at Canourgues in the municipality of Junies (Lot), is a Romanesque church built in the 13th century. It is distinguished by its sober architecture, with a unique nave and a flat bedside decorated with enveloping foothills. The cutting stone apparatus, marked by bolt holes, bears witness to medieval construction techniques. The bedside, crowned with a carved cornice, preserves narrow windows with broken lintels, including a more elaborate axial window, highlighted by a torus.

Originally, the church was intended for a wooden frame, but the choir, devoid of foothills, had to be vaulted, although this vault was never built. A bell tower-wall, installed on the triumphal arch, presents waiting stones suggesting an unfinished tower-closing project. The painted decorations, partially visible under the badigeons, date from the 16th century, with fragments of murals evoking the Passion of Christ. These decorative elements, added later, reflect the liturgical and artistic evolution of the building.

The church was a possession of the Church of Cahors, historically linked to the canons of the chapter. In 1214, Bishop Guillaume de Cardaillac granted the seigneury of Canourgues to Bertrand de Jean for services rendered during the Albigois Crusade, marking a turning point in local history. The village will later take the name of the Junies. The reconstruction of the church in the 13th century could be linked to the arrival of this new lord. In the 15th or 16th century, architectural changes (doors, windows) accompanied the addition of a painted decor, illustrating a period of renewal.

Ranked a historic monument in 1973, the church retains rural Romanesque features, such as its simple plan (nave and square apse) and its wall-closing with redents. His initial role as a pilgrimage chapel, attested from the end of the 12th century, continued after the Hundred Years' War. Modern lauze covers and scaffolding traces recall medieval construction methods, while murals offer an overview of local devotion throughout the centuries.

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