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Origin and history

The Saint-Cyprien church found its origins around 520, when a hermit named Cyprien settled in a cave overlooking the Dordogne, attracting a religious community. A monastery and a first church, now missing, are built around its tomb. The Saracen invasions near Beynac (VII–IX centuries) and Vikings (from 848) led to the destruction and fortification of the site, whose 12th-century bell tower, thick 1.50 m, serves as a watchtower.

In the 11th century, the church was attached to the abbey of Saint-Sernin of Toulouse under the impulse of Bishop Guillaume de Montberon (1076), first adopting the Augustinian rule, then unsuccessfully attempting a clunisian reform. Joined the Abbey of Chancelade in the 12th century, it became a prosperous priory thanks to the exploitation of river lands. In 1304 Bertrand de Got (later Pope Clement V), Archbishop of Bordeaux, placed the monastery under his jurisdiction, breaking his ties with Toulouse.

The Hundred Years' War and religious conflicts have long marked the building. Ravaged by the English in the 15th century, the church was reunited at the bishopric of Sarlat in 1433 to compensate for the decline in its income. During the Wars of Religion (1585), the Huguenots burned down and turned the nave into an arsenal. Restored in the 17th century by the prior Jacques Dunoyer, she found her baroque furniture (stalls, organ, altars) before being sold as a national good in 1791.

Ranked a historical monument in 1841, the church underwent major restorations in 1862–63 (Western facade and spans). Its 17th-century organ buffet, classified in 1977, was renovated in 1982. Despite the theft in 1997 of a relic (a crown thorn of Christ offered in 1804), the site remains an architectural and spiritual witness, opened during the Heritage Days.

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