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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Grand-Brassac, located in Dordogne (Nouvelle-Aquitaine), is a defensive religious building whose construction begins around 1140 and ends in the 13th century. Its elongated rectangular plan, crenellated blind walls and massive square bell tower reflect its dual role as liturgical space and refuge for the inhabitants. The building, classified as a Historic Monument in 1885, resisted the attacks of the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion without ever falling.

The interior architecture combines cupolas on pendants (XII century) and a vaulted choir in a broken cradle, while the exterior evokes a fortress with its slots and guard rooms. The northern Gothic portal houses five polychrome sculptures classified in 1908, and the furniture includes a 17th century tabernacle and a liquary painting, both protected. A spiral staircase leads to the fortified attices, showing defensive arrangements of the 13th and 16th centuries (a beam bears the date of 1599).

The historical sources highlight its Byzantine Romanesque origin, visible in the carved capitals and the archvolt of the northern portal, dated the fourteenth century by traces of painting preserved. The church, a communal property, was restored in 1886 by the architect Rapine, Historic Monuments. Its initial classification (1885) protects a religious, military and artistic heritage, illustrating the adaptation of sacred buildings to medieval conflicts.

Archaeological studies (especially those of the Marquis de Fayolle and Christian Corvisier) highlight its evolution: enlarged and fortified in the 13th century, then slightly revised in the late 16th century. The re-employment bas-reliefs and the extirpated hurdles recall its stronghold past, while the hollow tiles and the merlons complete its exterior appearance as a fortress. Today, it remains a major testimony of defensive ecclesial architecture in Périgord.

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