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Origin and history

Saint-Sperie Church in Saint-Céré is a Catholic building dating back to a chapel built in the ninth century to house the tomb of St.Sperie, a local martyr beheaded around 760. According to legend, Sperie, daughter of Duke Sérénus, had carried her head to a source to wash it after her execution by Elidius, a lord she refused to marry. This source, still present in the crypt, attracted numerous pilgrims, justifying the construction of a place of veneration.

The crypt, accessible by a hatch in the present church, preserves an altar table carved from the 10th or 11th century, representing a character picking a cluster of vines. This slab, probably linked to an anonymous donor, and the sacred source were visible only on October 12, the day of the feast of St. The relics of the saint, however, were reportedly stolen by the English during the Hundred Years War, according to Abbé Paramelle. No trace of buildings prior to the 13th century remains outside this crypt.

The current Romanesque building has undergone many transformations. After the Protestant destruction in 1584 (the church was burned at the time of the capture of Saint-Céré by the Huguenots), a restoration was undertaken. In the 17th century, the vaults of the nave and choir were redone by the Pondisse brothers (1692-1693), and a funeral chapel was added for Raymond Lafargue, rector of Loubressac. The 18th century saw the construction of the bell tower (1756-1760) with stones from the old ramparts, as well as the addition of a stand (1743) and a west gate (1753).

The interior furniture bears witness to this rich history: a polychrome altarpiece of 1714 decorated with statues of saints, a mutilated layer of the rector Antoine Lafargue in a Renaissance chapel, and paintings of the 19th and 20th centuries, including an Adoration of the Magi (1860) by Henriette Haillot. The stained glass windows of the early twentieth century, made by Louis-Victor Gesta's Toulouse workshop, illustrate the legend of St.Sperie. The church and its crypt were inscribed in historical monuments on 23 April 1979.

Among the notable events, the burial of the poet François Maynard in 1646 in the chapel of the Virgin emphasizes the cultural role of the place. The successive amendments — 13th century capitals kept under the rostrum, arch of the southern chapel dated 1733 — reflect its architectural evolution. The crypt, vaulted in a cradle, also houses an ancient half-circle fountain, crowned with a margin, and a reliquary niche with triangular arches, rare elements of its Carolingian heritage.

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