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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Fleuret, located in the Aveyron department in Occitanie, finds its origins in a medieval priory. The first remains, like a carved stone and a wall in the crypt, attest to a religious occupation from the 11th century, linked to the abbeys of Rodez, Montsalvy and Saint-Victor of Marseilles. The present building, built in the 15th century on the foundations of the priory, was first dedicated to Saint Amans (Vth century), the first bishop of Rodez, before being placed under the patronage of Saint Fleuret, bishop of Auvergne died at Estaing in the 7th century. Its flamboyant Gothic architecture, with a four-span nave, collateral and salient chapels, reflects work campaigns dating back to the 17th century.

In the 16th century, a funeral chapel was added for the lords of Estaing, while the crypt, transformed into an ossuary, was emptied in 1892 when the bones were transferred to the new cemetery. The 19th century saw the addition of a sacristy (1843) and the restoration of the bell tower after a fire in 1918. The church, classified as a historic monument in 1927, houses remarkable furniture: retables from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, modern stained glass windows of Claude Baillon (1975 to 1977), and reliquaries linked to Saint Fleuret, including a silver arm of the fifteenth century.

The building is distinguished by its eighteen arch keys carved with the arms of the d'Estaing family, its moulure porch, and two cemetery crosses (XVth–XVIth centuries), including one classified in 1981. The crypt, accessible since 2008, reveals medieval remains and fragmentary mural. The church thus illustrates the evolution of a rouergat place of worship, marked by abbatial rivalries, seigneurial patronage and unbroken local devotion since the Middle Ages.

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