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Origin and history

The Saint-Martin d'Artonne church, located in Puy-de-Dôme in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, is a former Romanesque collegiate church that has been listed as a historical monument since 1886. His story dates back to the Gallo-Roman and Merovingian era, where Artonne, then a vicus on the way from Clermont to Autun, already had early Christian traces. Tombs of the fifth and sixth centuries, discovered in the nave in the eighteenth century, as well as ancient elements re-used in its construction, attest to this age. Saint Martin was said to have prayed in front of the tomb of St.Vitaline, and Gregory of Tours quoted Artonne as the seat of a mother parish, with a paleo-Christian Baptistery nearby.

In 1048 Guillaume de Thiers founded a chapter of twelve canons and a dean, transforming the parish church into a collegiate church. The oldest part, prior to this foundation, includes the transept and the first two spans of the nave. The choir and bedside, rebuilt in the 12th century, illustrate the Romanesque architectural evolution. The decline of the chapter in the 18th century led Louis XV to remove it in 1760, attaching its property to Notre-Dame-du-Mathuret in Riom.

The French Revolution marked a violent turning point for the building: the bell tower was demolished, the treasure melted, the archives burned and the statues destroyed. Transformed into a Temple of Reason, the church even serves as a career of saltpeter. Despite these destructions, its three bells, one dating back to 1481, escaped the melt. In the 19th century, the capitular hall was profoundly remodelled, while restorations preserved this heritage, now remarkable by its nave of 47.80 meters, its strolling and its radiant chapels.

Built in Chaptuzat limestone, the church combines a variety of styles, with a nave that was initially not vaulted, later covered with a broken cradle, and half-cradle collaterals. Its furniture, such as a marble high altar of 1792 or a plaque in homage to Louis XVI, reflects the political and religious upheavals that it has experienced. The bells, dedicated to Saint Martin, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Vitaline, symbolize the cultural continuity despite historical vicissitudes.

The excavations and ancient texts also reveal the importance of Artonne as an early religious center, with an archpriest covering the Limagne. The presence of a nearby Paleo-Christian Baptistery and the Gallo-Roman funeral inscriptions underline its role in the evangelization of the region. Ranked among the major monuments of Puy-de-Dôme, Saint Martin's church thus embodies almost fifteen centuries of history, from Christian origins to the Revolution.

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