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Origin and history

The Saint-Barthélemy-et-Saint-Laurent church of Loché-sur-Indrois, located in the heart of the village in the valley of the Indrois, is a Catholic building whose history dates back to the 10th century. The small-scale masonries visible on the west facade bear witness to this first church, whose nave was narrower than the current building. Remnants suggest further widening southward, with construction techniques evolving towards the medium tuft apparatus.

In the 12th century, the church became a possession of the monks of the Saint-Sauveur Abbey of Villeloin, as evidenced by a bubble of Pope Adrien IV in 1156. This period marks the main construction campaign, with a unique nave of four spans and a gate in full hanger decorated with oric mouldings. Loché-sur-Indrois was erected in 1157, consolidating the central role of the church in the local community.

The flat bedside, ending the vaulted choir on a dogive cross, probably dates from the thirteenth century. This choir, illuminated by three windows in the middle of the wall, houses an archaic capital in use, perhaps from the early church. In the 19th century, changes took place: the destruction of a wooden awning protecting the gate (unspecified date), and the replacement of vaulted panels with bricks in 1890. That same year, two wooden statues of the 15th century, including a Mater dolorosa and a Saint John at Calvary, were sold and dispersed between the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The western façade, marked by its remains of the tenth century and its Romanesque portal, is listed as historical monuments by order of 11 July 1952. Three elements of the furniture — a tabernacle of the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, a Christ with a smiling cross (17th century) and a chalice (17th century) — are protected as movable objects. In 2015, the church remained an active place of worship, integrated into the parish of Montrésor.

Architecturally, the church combines Romanesque features (one-of-a-kind nave, clad foothills, curved windows) and Gothic (bells on cross-walls). Its strict west-east orientation and its central position in the village reflect its symbolic and community importance. Residual paintings on the portal and carved capitals, some of which are in use, highlight the historical richness of the site.

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