Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint-Simeon de Bouliac, located in the Gironde department in New Aquitaine, is a 12th century religious building dedicated to Simeon le Stylite. It replaces a paleo-Christian oratory of the fifth century and consists of a nave, a bedside and a sacristy. Only the bedside and the capitals of the gate remain of the original building, showing two distinct construction campaigns: the façade in the 11th century and the bedside around 1130, inspired by the Abbey of La Sauve-Majure.

During the Hundred Years War, the church was restored and fortified between 1413 and 1422 by Pey Berland, then parish priest of Saint-Siméon and future archbishop of Bordeaux. He added a fortified bell tower, a barbacan and a creneled round road to protect the village from French troops. Although Bouliac was never attacked, these fortifications, including the vault above the apse, are still visible today. In 1649, the church resisted the assaults of the Duke of Epernon, and in 1793 it suffered degradation during the Revolution.

In the 19th century, during the Second Empire, the medieval bell tower was replaced by the present (1862), and the nave was laminated. The frescoes adorning the nave, painted in 1896 by Boudon and Vernay, illustrate religious themes such as love for God and neighbor. The church, classified as a historical monument since 1862, also houses an organ of 1896 restored in 2012-2013, statues (including a 17th century Virgin with the Child), and stained glass windows. Its Romanesque portal, sheltered under the bell tower, and its bedside with carved capitals (birds, snakes, lions) make it a remarkable example of Romanesque art in Aquitaine.

The six capitals of the portal, dating from the 11th century, represent biblical scenes such as the visit of the Magi Kings, the baptism of Christ, or the enema of Peter's feet. Their iconography, influenced by apocryphal gospels and moral symbols (like fish carriers evoking intemperance), reflects the spiritual and didactic concerns of the time. Inside, the capitals of the triumphal arch oppose Daniel's virtue in the lions pit to the fall of Adam and Eve, illustrating the consequences of divine obedience or disobedience.

The bedside, pierced by five Romanesque bays, presents symbolic sculptures: birds drinking in a chalice (allegory of the Eucharist), an oroboros (snakes eating in between), and tampers of lions or dogs, metaphors of human passions. The bedside modillons, numbering 21, deliver moral lessons against lust, while those of the 15th and 19th centuries are purely decorative. The church also preserves Merovingian and Carolingian sarcophagi, discovered in the underlying Gallo-Roman necropolis, recalling its paleo-Christian funeral origin.

Pey Berland, a central figure in the history of the building, is honoured by a 19th-century statue under the porch of the bell tower. His action, both as parish priest and archbishop, was a lasting sign of the church, notably through the fortifications and the Pey-Berland tower in Bordeaux. The paintings and statues present, such as La Conversion de Madeleine (1678) or the Virgin to donors (copy of a Van Dyck offered by Napoleon III), enrich his artistic heritage, mixing medieval heritage and modern additions.

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