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Origin and history

The Saint-Martin church of Mayenne, located in the department of Mayenne, finds its possible origins in the 9th century, according to Abbé Angot, who evokes a monasteriolum Sancti Martini mentioned in 832 under Louis the Debonnaire, then destroyed by the Normans in 869. However, recent historians such as Henry Chanteux (1982) challenged this location, placing it instead at Montreuil-Poulay. The present building, on the other hand, did not go back until the 11th century: Hamelin de Lévaré, owner of the priory, in fact donated to Aubert, Abbé de Marmoutier, donation confirmed by Geoffroy I of Mayenne. In the 12th century, the monks of Saint Martin obtained the charge of the chapel of the castle, remaining "primitive priests" until the Revolution.

For centuries, the Church of Saint Martin maintained a rivalry with the parish of Notre-Dame, more prosperous thanks to the gifts of the notables. Tensions culminate in the processions of the Feast of God, where a confrontation on the bridge in 17-- (unspecified date) opposes the two parishes, averted by the intervention of the faithful. Closed in January 1794 during the Revolution, it was transformed into a hay barn until 1800. In the 19th century, the church underwent major changes: the construction of the north (XVIIIth) and south ( (1846-1847), the renovation of the façade, and the addition of a chapel in 1861. The consecration of the transformations took place on 27 September 1847 by Monsignor Bouvier.

The twentieth century marked two traumatic episodes: the bombings of 1944 destroyed a chapel, whose reconstruction was abandoned, while the restorations of the 1950s-1960s erased much of the decorations and furniture of the nineteenth century. In 1978, the municipality intervenes to save the degraded vaults, the panelling restaurant, masonry and lighting. The church, registered as a historical monument in 1984, preserves Romanesque elements (nef, cross of the transept) and a 17th century retable, as well as an organ inaugurated in 1923 and restored in 2014. Its history reflects Mayenne's religious, political and architectural upheavals.

The 1906 inventory, carried out under tension, sees the agent using forced entry in the face of some 30 hostile people, illustrating the conflicts around secularization. The supposed monastic origins, medieval donations, and parish rivalries make it a symbol of local social and spiritual dynamics, while its successive transformations reveal the permanent adaptation of the heritage to cultural needs and historical hazards.

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