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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church Saint-Pierre de Champagnolles, located in the Charente-Maritime department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, is a religious building of Romanesque architecture built in the second half of the 12th century. His Latin cross plan includes a nave of four spans, a seven-sided bedside (two for the choir, five for the apse), and a transept with lateral apsidioles. The nave, originally vaulted in a broken cradle, collapsed in 1656 before being rebuilt with its characteristic Romanesque windows, including hangers decorated with geometric and floral motifs. The three-storey quadrangular bell tower dominates an octagonal dome mounted on trunks, while the west façade, remodeled at the end of the 15th century, features a basket handle portal surrounded by prismatic mouldings.

The sculptural richness of the church is concentrated on the modillons and capitals of the bedside, northern absidiole and transept. More than sixty modillons, often evocative of medieval themes such as lust or fantastic bestiary, adorn cornices. Among them, a modillon carries a Templar cross, recalling the historical presence of the order in the area (a neighbouring hamlet was called The Temple in 1307). The apse, vaulted in cul-de-four, presents windows in the middle of a hanger with archvolts carved of damiers, zigzags and billets, while the northern apsidiole exhibits a capital representing a bicorporeal lion, a medieval symbol of duality or sin. Inside, a classified altar-tabernacle of 1767, decorated with a paschal lamb and gilded motifs, contrasts with the sobriety of the Romanesque.

Classified as a Historic Monument in 1910, the church illustrates the architectural evolution between the 12th and 16th centuries, marked by Gothic changes (Western gate) and defensive additions (fortified fence during the Wars of Religion). The canonial dial engraved on the south wall and the cross of the old cemetery, now backed by the transept, testify to its central role in liturgical and community life. Stylistic comparisons with the nearby churches of Givrezac or Saint Eutrope de Saintes suggest the work of shared local workshops, typical of the Romanesque Saintong.

The western façade, in Saintongeese style, reveals traces of an earlier Byzantine decoration, with canned stones on the ground evoking a primitive church subject to oriental rules (Basile, Pacoma or Cassian). This architectural stratigraphy, combined with the bold iconographic modillons (laced pairs, sirens, animal masks), offers an overview of medieval mentality, where sacred and secular coexisted. Subsequent restorations, such as the brick vault of the nave in the 19th century, preserve this heritage while adapting the building to modern cultural needs.

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