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Origin and history

The Saint-Saturnin church of Cardan, located in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, is a Roman Catholic church built in the 12th century. It is characterized by a western facade surmounted by a bell tower-wall and a well preserved Romanesque bedside, including a semicircular apse arched in cul-de-four. Originally, it was less than 100 m2, but was enlarged in the seventeenth century, as evidenced by the date of 1685 engraved on the southern gate. The interior, largely redesigned at that time, lost much of its Romanesque decoration, with the notable exception of an apse capital representing dragons.

The richly decorated Romanesque portal has six columns committed to carved capitals, five of which are Romanesque. The archvolts, decorated with saw teeth and geometric motifs, frame a tympanum featuring a statuette of St.Peter and a seated Madonna, typical of Romanesque iconography (Trone of Wisdom). The capitals recount moralizing scenes, such as the struggle between the forces of good (angels, ecclesiasticals) and evil (Satan, sirens, carnal temptations). Two obscene modillons, preserved under the cornice, illustrate the raw representations of lust frequent in Romanesque art.

Ranked a historic monument in 1907 for its portal and apse, and registered in 1925, the church was restored in 1855 by the architect Durassie and the entrepreneur Videau. This restoration included the addition of a neo-Roman capital (representing lions) and the replacement of certain modillons considered indecent. Inside, the wooden pulpit (18th century) and a painted stone altarpiece (first half of the 18th century) bear witness to post-medieval additions. The bell, melted in 1849 by Élie Deyres de Bordeaux, marked the transition to its status as a secondary chapel after 1850.

The exterior iconography includes a southern console symbolizing Adam's Fall, where a nude couple, lying under a lily-flowered tree, embodies original sin. The mostly geometric cornice modillons have two male exhibitionists, the one isthyphallic (partly destroyed), and the other is anal. These elements reflect the moralizing and eschatological concerns of Romanesque art, mixing warnings against lust and symbols of redemption.

The church, originally parish until 1850, became a relief chapel before being preserved for its artistic heritage. His cemetery, formerly adjacent, was moved. Today owned by the municipality of Cardan, it illustrates the architectural evolution of rural religious buildings, from novel to classic, while maintaining rare traces of its original medieval decor.

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