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Origin and history

The church of Sainte-Madeleine de Montagrier, located in the north-west of the Dordogne (New Aquitaine), is a former priory of the 12th century dependent on the abbey of Brantôme. Built outside the fortified enclosure of the city, it replaced in the eighteenth century the original parish church dedicated to Saints Como and Damien, destroyed at that time. Its current distance from the centre of the city is due to this late substitution. The nave, considered too small, was rebuilt in 1897, while the bell tower was enhanced in the same year.

The building preserves remarkable Romanesque elements, including the cross of the transept with its four square pillars of 1.50 m side, decorated with cubic capitals supporting a dome on pendants. The croisillons and the choir, in the form of semicircular apsides, communicate with apsidioles by bays in the middle of the hang. The main apse, 3.80 m wide and 5.80 m deep, is decorated with five arcs of application carried by half-columns. A stone plaque sculpted with a chrism, dated from the 6th century by Edmond Le Blant, was discovered there during works and built over the arch of the transept.

Classified as a Historic Monument in 1912, the church also houses protected elements: the chrism (classified since 1908), a 16th century Renaissance pulpit, and a 1700 black marble commemorative plaque founded by the Viscount of Ribérac for the poor in neighbouring parishes. Archaic capitals, some of which may come from older churches according to the Marquis de Fayolle, testify to possible reuse. Camille Enlart highlighted his characteristic truffled plan, while the remains of murals and a funerary liter recall his medieval history.

The church, originally Benedictine priory, lost its conventual buildings to the north. Its architecture combines 11th century influences (a Romanesque part according to Enlart) and 12th century influences (dating retained by Fayolle despite the archaic style of sculptures). Recent restorations have removed sacristy and lauze from cornices, while preserving secondary absidioles, a rare feature of the plan. The Merovingian chancel of Saint-Apre, preserved at the museum of Périgueux, illustrates regional artistic ties.

The site, a communal property, is distinguished by its adjoining cemetery and its location near the departmental road 103, south-east of the village. The successive protections (1908 for chrism, 1912 for the building, 1975 for the pulpit and plaque) underline its heritage value. Archaeological sources, such as the congresses of the Société française d'archéologie (1927), have helped document its complex history, between medieval reuse and modern transformations.

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