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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Saint-Martin church of Aydius, located in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, is a mountain building built in the 14th century in a Gothic style, then profoundly redesigned in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its rectangular plane includes a three-span nave, a flat bedside, and a sacristy added later. The square bell tower, erected in 1766, dominates the western medieval facade, while a gate in the middle of a hanger decorated with almond tores bears witness to its Gothic origin. Inside, a full wooden cradle vault, decorated with fake appliances, covers the nave and the lower sides, complemented by a two-tiered stand on the west.

The choir, separated from the nave by a triumphal arch adorned with a relief cartridge and a painted medallion depicting Christ in majesty, houses murals made in the 19th century, as well as side chapels. The weapons of a bishop and a pope are also represented. The north side was added in the 18th century, while the cemetery, originally adjacent to the church on the west side (visible on the 1837 cadastre), was moved after that date to a larger parcel to the southwest. The whole, including the church and the old cemetery, has been inscribed in the Historical Monuments since 1994.

Major transformations include the construction of the bell tower in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, housing a marble portal dated 1766, as well as the addition of decorations painted in the nineteenth century, especially near the Baptistery. These elements illustrate the architectural and artistic evolution of the building, marked by Gothic, classical and Baroque influences, reflecting the liturgical and community needs of a mountain parish over centuries.

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