Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint-Étienne de Calviac, located in the Lot, is mentioned for the first time in the 10th century in writings relating it to the abbey of Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne. An act of donation quotes Ratbodus, who offers his villa in Calviaco to Abbé Rudolphe. After this period, the archives were lacking until the 14th century, where the church was attached to the priory of Escalmels, a dependence confirmed until the Revolution.

In 1326 the Bonafos de Teyssieu, vassals of the Viscount of Turenne, owned half of Calviac. The church remained under the authority of the priory of Escalmels until 1789. A fire in 1795 ravaged the presbytery, destroying the local archives. The reconstruction took place in 1880, taking over the original Romanesque design and style, as evidenced by the Napoleonic cadastral.

Architecturally, the church combines Romanesque elements (flat hair, bell tower) and neoclassical elements (portal). Its interior mixes Gothic, Baroque and re-use influences of the former building. The furniture, dating from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, includes statues (Vierge à l'Enfant, Saint Roch) and anonymous paintings, reflecting its central role in the parish.

The written sources are based on the archives of the General Inventory of Occitanie and the Merimée base, supplemented by local studies such as those of Yvette Aquioupou. The church thus illustrates the evolution of a rural place of worship, marked by historical hazards and successive reconstructions.

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