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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Cybard de Vérac, located in the Gironde department in New Aquitaine, is a Catholic parish church dedicated to Saint Cybard of Angoulême. Built at the beginning of the 12th century in the Romanesque style of Saintonge, it is distinguished by its western facade decorated with carved modillons and its Gothic portal of the 15th century. It was the only parish of the former seigneury of Vérac, attached to the Archpried of Fronsac under the Archdiocese of Bordeaux.

In the 14th century, during the Black Pest (1339-1340), the records of the archdiocese of Bordeaux mention the abandonment of land and crops in Varac, reflecting the ravages of the epidemic. The interior of the church, reworked over the centuries, includes a panelled nave covered in 1864 with a vault in the cradle of bricks, and a vaulted choir in the late 15th century. The bell tower, weakened by structural changes, has been recently restored (completed in 2024), while a bell dating from 1580, rare, is still preserved there.

The 12th century Romanesque models, carved on the western and northern facades, illustrate traditional themes such as capital sins, evil masks or tormented human heads. A canonial dial engraved on the southern wall of the nave bears witness to medieval liturgical practices. The church once housed the missing epitaphs of local noble families, such as the Achards (servants of Kings Henry III, Henry IV and Louis XIII) and the Fronsacs, lords of Verac until the Revolution.

Among the treasures preserved are an ostensoir offered by Napoleon III, adorned with imperial and religious symbols, and a 19th-century statue of Notre-Dame du Bon Secours, the object of a local devotion celebrated by an annual pilgrimage on May 24. These elements underline the spiritual and community role of the building throughout the centuries.

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