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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Château-Gontier was built in the 10th century by Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Saint-Aubin d'Angers. These religious, having given up land to Renaud I of Château-Gontier to build the castle and the fortified city, retained the right to establish a priory and churches there. The building, attested as early as 1100, became both a prioral and parish church, dependent on the abbey of Angelvin. His spiritual and community role was central in Anjou County, as evidenced by papal bubbles, including that of 1452 definitively annexing the priory to Saint Aubin.

In the 17th century, the nuns of Saint-Maur, introduced in 1660, reorganized the choir and replaced the convent buildings with the present presbytery (1671). The church then housed many brotherhoods, such as those of the Rosary or the Crown of Our Lord, reflecting an intense religious life. The French Revolution marked a brutal turning point: in 1790 the eight monks were expelled, and the building, transformed into a Temple of Reason, even served as a prison. The bell tower, damaged by lightning in 1791, and the destroyed altars symbolized the desacralization of the place.

The 19th century was marked by controversial restorations. Ranked in 1840, the church was covered with plaster and plaster in 1877, masking its original Romanesque style and causing its decommissioning in 1888. On 20 June 1940, a German shell launched a devastating fire. The subsequent restoration, however, revealed frescoes from the 11th to 13th centuries, hidden since the 17th century, leading to a new ranking in 1941. These paintings, among the oldest in the region, and the Romanesque crypt with trapues columns today make Saint-Jean-Baptiste an exceptional testimony of medieval art angevin and maiiot.

On the architectural plane, the church adopts a Latin cross plan (56 m long, 23 m at the transept), with a nave with seven spans, two sides, and a choir overlooking a vaulted crypt of ridges. The cross of the transept, with a dome and a bell tower with geminied berries, illustrates the sobriety and grandeur of the novel Angelvin. The rediscovered frescoes, studied by historians such as Marc Thibout or Philippe Lauer, reveal links with the illuminations of the National Library, highlighting the cultural importance of the site.

The history of Saint John the Baptist also reflects tensions between religious and local power. As early as the 12th century, conflicts between parish chaplains and Benedictines for the control of offerings and sacraments. The dedicated altars (Saint-Jacques, Notre-Dame-sous-Terre, Saint-Sébastien) and venerated relics, like those of Saint Chantal, bear witness to intense popular devotion. After the Revolution, the church regained its cult vocation, becoming a symbol of resilience for the Castromontian community.

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