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Origin and history

The church Saint-Mary de Vézézoux, located in the Haute-Loire department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, is a building marking the transitions between the Romanesque and Gothic styles. Mentioned as early as the 11th century in the cartular of Sauxillanges, it preserves from this time its vaulted nave in cradle and the modillons of the l-abside. These initial novel elements reflect a modest but technical construction, characteristic of the small rural parishes of Velay.

The Gothic transformation, mainly in the 14th and 15th centuries, marked the addition of the bell tower-porch and the ogival vault of the abside, to five sections. A porch under warheads, typical of this period, would also have been integrated. The tympanum of the portal, now mutilated, once represented the Virgin and Saint John, while the bell tower is inspired by the architectural techniques of the Abbey of the Chair-God, the major spiritual and artistic centre of the region. These developments illustrate the gradual adaptation of religious buildings to new aesthetic and liturgical currents.

The church, classified as a historic monument in 1969, is distinguished by rare architectural details, such as the double ressalt of the nave, a technique not widely used in Velay. A communal bread oven, a vestige of the medieval and modern collective life of the village, is still in the vicinity of the abside. This tangible and intangible heritage underscores the central role of the church in the local social and religious organization, from the Middle Ages to the modern epoch.

Historical sources, including the work of F. Roussel (1971, 1972), emphasize the importance of parish registers and local archives to reconstruct the history of Vezezoux. The absence of elements after the 15th century confirms a remarkable preservation of the building in its medieval state, offering an authentic testimony of the constructive and devotional practices of the period.

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