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Origin and history

The church Saint-Martin de Mardié, located in the Loiret department in the Centre-Val de Loire region, is a building whose origins date back to the 12th and 13th centuries. It features a Romanesque nave and a Berrichon choir, characteristic of the region. Its central vessel is equipped with a vault of warheads adorned with broad-leaved baskets and figurative ass-de-lamps, typical of the early thirteenth century. The church is also marked by its inscription in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, as a monument located in the perimeter of the Loire Valley.

In the mid-16th century, an expansion project to include flat bedside in a series of spans was interrupted in 1567 by the passage of Protestant troops. These events, linked to the Wars of Religion, left traces in the history of the building. In the 19th century, controversial restoration works added decorative plaster elements, such as false warheads and a false vault in the bell tower, as well as a gallery to the west.

The church is home to several remarkable elements, including a 16th-century statue of St James, listed as a historical monument in 1969, and a Prussian shell of the 1870 war still visible in an outside wall. A carved group of the Virgin of Piety, dating from the seventeenth century and classified in 1960, was unfortunately stolen in 1968. Initially, only the bell tower was listed for historical monuments in 1925, before the entire building was protected in 2006.

On the ecclesiastical level, the church depends on the diocese of Orléans, in the pastoral area of the same name and the dean of Bionne. It is located on the right bank of the Loire, 13 km west of Orléans, and plays a central role in the religious and cultural life of the municipality of Mardié.

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