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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church of Sainte-Valérie, located in the heart of the village of Malval on the town of Linard-Malval (Creuse, Nouvelle-Aquitaine), is the only remaining vestige of a medieval priory formerly dependent on the Abbey of Chambon-sur-Voueize. Built in the 12th century, it was originally distinguished by a semicircular apse choir, two apsidioles, a transept and an octagonal bell tower with traces of fortifications. Its austere architecture, partially amputated (northern transeven and a missing absidiole), reveals re-uses of Gallo-Roman burials in its granite masonry. The nave, never finished, gave the building a picked up appearance, accentuated by its classification as a parish church in 1880.

The bell tower, with an irregular polygonal base, rises on the cross of the transept with sections cut closer than the facades of the double arches, characteristic of the middle of the 12th century. Inside, a tomb between the choir and an apse carries the epitaph of a certain B. de Sallignac (died in 1557), probably a commendate prior. The building, a communal property, was classified as Historic Monument by decree of 14 August 1912, emphasizing its heritage value linked to its monastic history and defensive elements.

The changes experienced over the centuries, such as the suppression of the north transept, have altered its original structure, while ancient funerary elements integrated into the construction testify to an ancient occupation of the site. Today, the church embodies both a limousine Romanesque heritage and the transformations of a priory into a parish church, while preserving material traces of his religious and military past.

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