Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint Thibery, an ancient abbey located in the eponymous village, was built between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century. The works began in 1457 under the impulse of Abbé Antoine de Rosène, but the nave was never built, leaving a spacious choir with a polygonal apse and a transept vaulted with intersected ribstones. A 14th century crypt, called a glaise, remains as a witness to the first foundations, while baluster bays in the choir once communicated with the missing abbatial buildings.

The bell tower, isolated west of the church, was erected between 1499 and 1521 as an independent tower. Its portal, now reduced to a primer, is next to an adorned Renaissance pilastre, topped by a statue. Inside, 18th-century woodwork, including stalls, dress the choir. A large room, located above the transept, recalls the old abbey. The ensemble, classified as a Historical Monument in 1923, illustrates the transition between late Gothic and Renaissance, marked by architectural details such as the foliage lamp asses.

The atypical arrangement of the church, with a detached bell tower and an absent nave, may reflect financial constraints or symbolic choices related to the abbey. The preserved elements (crypt, berries, woodwork) testify to the successive transformations of the site, from its medieval religious role to its modern preservation. The tower, with its Renaissance decoration, highlights the influence of new artistic currents at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

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