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Origin and history

The church of Saint Paul in Turenne finds its origins in two medieval churches: one dedicated to Saint Pantaléon, dependent on the priory of Souillac, and the other to Saint Paul, founded by the lords of Turenne and attached to the monastery of Saint Peter in Uzerche. In 1144, after conflicts between the monks of Souillac and Uzerche, the priory Saint Paul was ceded to the abbot of Aurillac by decision of the archbishop, confirming a papal bubble of 1142. The two churches were then placed under the authority of the abbey of Aurillac, with a prior and a perpetual parish priest for Saint Paul.

In 1459, the inhabitants of Turenne created a collegiate chapter by adding four priests to the parish church, under the presentation of the Viscount and Prior. This chapter, originally dedicated to Notre-Dame, marked the beginning of a more structured religious organization. However, the wars of Religion (16th century) destroyed the two churches, leaving only the cemetery of Saint Paul. Charlotte de La Marck, wife of Henry I of La Tour d'Auvergne, launched in 1593 the reconstruction of a new unifying church priory and parish, under the name of Saint Pantaleon. The works, interrupted by his death in 1594, resumed in 1629 under the impulse of the bishop of Limoges and ended in 1661.

In the 18th century, after the sale of the Viscounty of Turenne to Louis XV (1738), tensions between the parish priest and the canons intensified. The canons, appointed by the king, sought to oust the priest to control the church, now called the royal collegiate Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Pantaléon. A ruling by Parliament in 1780 confirmed the rights of the parish priest and prior, putting an end to the conflict. The church, classified as a historical monument in 1987, carries above its door a motto inspired by the Epistle to the Ephesians: Unus Deus, Una Lex, Unum Baptisma. A fire in 2017 partially damaged the sacristy.

The building, of classic style, features a Latin cross with a bell tower-poach to the west, a nave of four spans, and a flat-side choir. Two symmetrical chapels surround the transept, topped by a polygonal lanternon with a dome and a conical roof. The bell tower's arrow, a polygonal with re-stretched sewers, dominates the whole. Architect A. Sarlande supervised the reconstruction work between 1593 and 1661, mixing medieval heritage and Baroque influences.

The historical conflicts between the monks of Souillac and d'Uzerche, then between Canons and parish priest, illustrate the stakes of religious and seigneurial power around this monument. The reconstruction in the 16th-17th centuries also symbolizes the revival of Turenne after the destruction of the Wars of Religion, under the impulse of the family of La Tour d'Auvergne. Ranked in 1987, the church remains a major architectural and historical testimony of the Corrèze.

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