Initial construction XIIe siècle (≈ 1250)
Romanesque and archpried church built.
XVIIe siècle
Construction of the pigeon house
Construction of the pigeon house XVIIe siècle (≈ 1750)
Added a square dovecote.
1789 (Rvolution française)
Sale as a national good
Sale as a national good 1789 (Rvolution française) (≈ 1789)
Cure and church privatized.
12 février 1990
Registration for Historic Monuments
Registration for Historic Monuments 12 février 1990 (≈ 1990)
Protection of the adjacent hydraulic system.
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui Aujourd'hui (≈ 2025)
Position de référence.
Heritage classified
Former Church of Notre-Dame; hydraulic system including sources, basins, fountains and pipelines (see Box 2). A 20, 26-28, 557): registration by order of 12 February 1990
Key figures
Information non disponible - No character cited
The source text does not mention any historical actors.
Origin and history
The former cure or archpried of Melle, located in the commune of Mazières-sur-Béronne (Deux-Sèvres), dates from the 12th century. This monument, originally linked to the parish of the Archpriest of Melle, presents a church of Romanesque origin remodeled in the Gothic period. Two cemeteries once surrounded the site. At the Revolution, the church and the cure were sold as national goods and passed into the private domain, the church being transformed into a house.
The facade retains traditional elements: flat buttresses, modillon cornice and a two-rolled portal, with vestiges of Romanesque sculptures. The house, surrounded by an enclosure, adopts a rectangular plane with a wing in return of square. A square dovecote, probably from the seventeenth century, is located near the porch. The house was rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries, incorporating jobs such as funerary slabs and chimneys.
The adjacent hydraulic system, including springs, basins and fountains, was listed in the Historical Monuments by order of 12 February 1990. Today, the site is visited by appointment, without accommodation or rental. The blankets, mostly in hollow tiles, contrast with that of the dovecote, in paved corrugated sheet.
