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Origin and history

The church of the Nativity-de-la-Sainte-Vierge of Saint-Martin-de-Fugères is a 12th century Romanesque building located in the Haute-Loire department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is representative of rural churches that have evolved over the centuries, with major transformations in the 15th and 16th centuries. The priory was attested as early as 1179 as dependent on the abbey of Saint-Chaffre.

From the original church of the 12th century, the vault of the nave remains, the walls of the first span and the transept. The western facade and the bell tower-wall date back to the 15th century, while the bedside and the rest of the nave were rebuilt in the 16th century. The choir and its chapels house bandaged capitals decorated with polychrome sculptures of the same period, representing angel heads, dragons, fish faced and a man's head with volutes.

The church was restored in 1844 and listed as historical monuments by order of 7 February 1994. Today it belongs to the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Fugères and bears witness to rural religious architecture, marked by late Romanesque and Gothic influences.

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