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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Pierre de Lagrange, located in the Landes department, is a 11th and 12th century religious building marked by a Romanesque flat bedside architecture. It was founded at the hinge of these two centuries, probably by a Gibarret Viscount on Juliac's fief. The present bedside, with its carved modillons, dates from the early twelfth century, while the nave and triumphal arch were built around 1130. These initial Romanesque elements coexist with subsequent additions, such as a fortified 15th century Gothic tower, reflecting the defensive needs associated with the Hundred Years War.

The church was initially attached to a pre-demonstrated priory, whose convent buildings, backed by the south flank, were demolished in 1922. The priory, founded after the donation of the tithe in 1227 by Guillaume II de Moncade to the monks of Saint John de La Castelle, took the name "grange", later designating the village itself. The building suffered several destructions, notably in 1569 by the Huguenots Thoiras and Baudignan, before being restored from 1572. A major restoration campaign took place between 1687 and 1692, financed by Paule de Bézolles, Viscountess of Juliac, including the construction of a classical foredog.

The church of Saint Peter presents an irregular plan, the result of its multiple phases of construction. To the west, a regular gothic tower with foothills dominates the whole. It is joined by a circular staircase turret, partially destroyed in 1922. Inside, the Romanesque portal in the middle of the wall gives access to a trapezoidal nave, disconnected from the square choir with flat bedside, adorned with Romanesque archatures. The exterior and interior walls bear many marks of taskrons (letters, symbols), testimonies of medieval artisans.

Classified as a Historic Monument in 1996, the church has been the subject of several studies, notably by Abbé Besselère (1893), M. Romieu (1894), and more recently by the Grangers association of Saint-Pierre-de-Juliac (2008). The remains of the convent buildings, demolished in the 20th century despite opposition from the city council, recall its past as an influential priory. Since 1959, restoration campaigns have preserved this building, a symbol of the religious and architectural heritage of the Landes.

Saint Peter's church illustrates stylistic transitions between Romanesque and Gothic, as well as defensive and liturgical adaptations over the centuries. Its history reflects the political and religious upheavals of the region, from the vicomtal foundation to the Reformation, to medieval conflicts. Today it is a communal property and remains a major testimony of the religious architecture of the Landes, open to visit and studied for its historical and artistic peculiarities.

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