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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Saint-Saturnin parish church of Flamarens, located in Gers, is a flamboyant Gothic building built in the 16th century. It consists of a rectangular nave of four spans, asymmetrical lateral chapels, and a five-sided bedside. A circular tower, attached to the bell tower-wall, completes the whole. The building, built in local limestone, has lost its vault and roof over the centuries.

The present church replaces a 14th century building, rebuilt between the beginning of the 16th century and 1545 under the impulse of Arnaud de Grossoles, lord of Flamarens and nephew of Hérard de Grossoles, bishop of Condom. The date of 1545, engraved above the Renaissance gate decorated with carved capital columns, marks its completion. Its unstable ground, consisting of embankments, caused repeated collapses, including that of 1971.

Classified as ruins, the remains of the church have been included in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments since 1993. Stabilization and partial reconstruction work has been undertaken since that date to preserve this heritage. The portal, the bell tower bays and the remaining walls still illustrate late Gothic art mixed with renaissant influences.

The church, owned by the municipality of Flamarens, embodies local religious and seigneurial history. Its architecture reflects stylistic transitions between the Middle Ages and Renaissance, while bearing the stigmas of geological hazards and centuries of partial abandonment.

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