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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Sainte-Anne de Chappes church, located in the Allier department, is a religious building dating back to the 11th century, when its construction was undertaken as a diocesan church. From this period perhaps remain the two eastern batteries of the transept. In the 12th century, it was granted in 1124 to the Priory of Souvigny by the Archbishop of Bourges, who established a small priory there. Two campaigns of work, visible on the nave columns, mark this era, including the sculpted capitals of fantastic beings and plant motifs.

The church houses a 12th century wooden Virgin Child, an object of intense devotion and regional pilgrimages. Nicknamed Notre-Dame de Sans-parler because of the silence observed by the pilgrims, this statue sometimes overshadowed the original name of the church (Saint Anne), often confused with Sainte-Marie. The building, classified as a Historical Monument in 1979, also illustrates additions from the 16th and 18th centuries, such as furniture (tubernacle, statues of Raphael and Tobia, or Joseph and the Child Jesus, restored in the 21st century).

On the architectural level, the church combines a nave of four spans covered in a cradle, of the lower side, and a transept not salient surmounted by an octagonal bell tower. The western portal, which is Romanesque in inspiration, is distinguished by its committed columns, its full hanger, and a lintel with no sculpture. A box, attached to the southern wall, leads to a secondary gate, the main entrance of the faithful. Inside, the high altar houses the statue of Notre Dame, restored in the 19th century in a style deemed too decorated, while a 12th century bas-relief, reused in 1864, decorates its front.

The church's history is also linked to Abbé Fournier, parish priest in the 19th century, who initiated the restoration of the high altar by incorporating this bas-relief. Furniture, such as the 17th century statues or the tabernacle around 1600, testify to the liturgical and artistic evolution of the place. Today, the church remains a symbol of Bourbon's religious heritage, marked by its hybrid architecture and miraculous statue, a source of local legends.

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