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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church of Saint Martin de Cuzorn, located in the Lot-et-Garonne on a plateau overlooking the Lemance, was originally built between the 11th and 12th centuries as a pilgrimage church dedicated to St Julien de Brioude. His novel plan includes a unique nave completed by a hemicircular apse framed with two apsidioles, all decorated with perforated modillons and metopes. This bedside, characteristic of regional Romanesque art, has similarities with the church of Saint-Front-sur-Lémance, reflecting a local architectural tradition.

Originally simple Romanesque nave, the building undergoes major transformations over the centuries. As early as the 13th century, the parish was attested in the episcopal archives of Agen, while in 1601 Bishop Nicolas de Villars reported its state of degradation and its pollution by Huguenot burials. The nave was rebuilt at the end of the 18th century with a panelling, and the apsidioles became chapels dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Aurely, the latter housing a chapel built by a local chestnut.

The 19th century marked a period of intensive renovations: repairs in 1818 under architect Hillac, decorations painted by Franconi in 1839, and complete reconstruction of the nave in the last quarter of the century. The current bell tower, erected in 1879-1880, replaces an ancient five-bayed Romanesque bell tower, partly in opus spicatum, typical of the Fumélois. After a fire in 1930, the bell tower was restored. The apse and apsidioles, the only preserved Romanesque parts, are classified as Historical Monuments in 1925.

The church illustrates the architectural and cultural evolution of a Romanesque building: first a medieval pilgrimage site, it becomes a rural parish marked by religious conflicts (Huguenote presence), then a preserved heritage monument. Its carved modillons, its cul-de-four vaults and its bell tower with opus spicatum make it a precious witness of Romanesque art in Agenais, studied in the 19th century by historians such as Georges Tholin.

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