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Origin and history

The church of Saint Vincent de Floirac, located on the right bank of the Garonne in the Bordeaux agglomeration, has its origins in the 12th century. Its roman bedside, consisting of five panels separated by committed columns, is one of the rare remains of this period. The partially eroded capitals and modillons bear witness to a medieval iconography mixing geometric motifs and moralistic representations, such as scenes of lust or symbols of sin. The original building, with a single nave, followed a classical plan of Bordeaux Romanesque churches, with a vaulted choir in the middle of the hangar and an apse in the hemicycle.

In the 15th century, the church underwent a first enlargement with the addition of a south side, followed by reshuffles in the 16th century and a second north side to the 17th. However, the building fell into ruins in the 18th century, resulting in its prohibition in 1760 for dangerousness. Saved by the intervention of Léon Defosses and Simon Durousseau, it reopened in 1761. After the Revolution, its old state required almost complete reconstruction in the 19th century under the impulse of Cardinal Donnet and architect Gustave Alaux, who gave it its current neo-Gothic style, with a western facade with an arrowed bell tower.

The restoration of the 19th century erased much of the medieval traces, with the exception of bedside. Alaux reconstructs the nave and the lower side, adding prismatic dogive vaults and a decor painted by Ernest Ricaud and Joseph Villiet, the latter also producing the stained glass and an allegorical mosaic. The church houses remarkable furniture elements, such as two 15th-century English alabaster statues (classified as Historical Monuments), a 13th-century limousin box in Limoges enamel, and a 17th-century baroque altar offered by the Duke of Epernon. His organ, dating back to 1865, is now unusable.

The murals, executed between 1866 and 1868, illustrate life-size Marian scenes, while the stained glass, mostly made by Villiet, represents biblical episodes. The furniture also includes an eighteenth century chair, saved and partially rebuilt in 2010 by the local association A.S.V.P.F. The church, registered with the Historical Monuments in 2001, remains a testimony of stylistic superpositions, from novel to neo-gothic, and of local devotion throughout the centuries.

Around the building, four road crosses (15th-17th centuries) and a 19th century presbytery, partially destroyed by fire, complete this heritage. The parish archives, lost in the fire, limit the precise knowledge of its ancient history, although Merovingian traces are supposed. Today integrated into the pastoral sector of Bordeaux-Bastide-Floirac, the Church of Saint Vincent continues to play a central role in the religious and cultural life of the municipality.

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