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Origin and history

The medieval house of Tournon-d'Agenais, dated from the end of the 13th to the beginning of the 14th century, is a rare vestige of medieval civil architecture in the region. Its stone façade, decorated with geminied bays and carved capitals (including a bird-decorated dating perhaps from the late twelfth century), bears witness to a construction in two distinct countrysides. The building, traditionally associated with an episcopal residence, reportedly housed Bishop Imbert d'Agen in the 15th century according to a document of 1423, although this occupation was not attested before that date.

Transformed into a church after the destruction of Saint Barthélemy by Protestants around 1560, the house is equipped with a bell tower in the seventeenth or eighteenth century (a bell is blessed there in 1712). Disused after 1886, it briefly served as a salpetry workshop during the Revolution and was restored between 1819 and 1821 with the reconstruction of the bell tower. Only the façade, classified in 1912 for its exceptional state of conservation, remains of the original building, while the interior, redeveloped in a showroom, retains traces of its religious use (altar, stand).

The capitals of the geminied bays, stylistically dated from the late 13th or early 14th century, contrast with that of the isolated bay, older and possibly re-used. The sabre recovery on the floor suggests two distinct construction phases. After its desecration in 1886, the ensemble (façade, courtyard and Androne) was protected in 2014, highlighting its heritage importance as an example of medieval civil architecture and cultural reuse.

The house also illustrates the tormented religious history of the region: partially destroyed during the wars of Religion, it embodies the Catholic reconquest under Bishop Nicolas de Villars (retoration of the cult in 1601). Its bell tower, aligned on the street, probably dates from the second half of the seventeenth century, period of post-conflict reconstruction. Materials (cut stone, hollow tiles, limestone rubble) and techniques (broken arches, capital columns) reflect local know-how and regional influences.

Today a communal property, the medieval house of Tournon-d Its careful decor and its successive use (Patrician residence, church, public hall) make it an emblematic monument of the Lot-et-Garonne, bearing witness to the social and religious changes of New Aquitaine from the Middle Ages to the modern era.

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