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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Georges de La-Haye-Descartes, located in Descartes (Indre-et-Loire), is a parish church built in the 12th century. It originally belonged to the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Preuilly-sur-Claise. Its bedside was redesigned in the 15th century: the semicircular apse was partially drowned by a wall, and a square bell tower was erected above the northern apsidiole, while the southern apsidiole was rebuilt on a square base. Until the Revolution, it served as a church in the parish of Saint-Georges in The Hague, then becoming the only parish church in the commune after the abolition of the parish of Notre-Dame.

In the 19th century, the church underwent new changes. In 1926 his apse was listed as historical monuments. On July 9, 2023, a fire, probably caused by lightning, destroyed its 500 m2 roof and caused the bell tower to collapse. The building consists of a nave with two collaterals, a choir extended by an apse and two apsidioles, including that of the north once surmounted by the bell tower. Modern stained-glass windows represent among others Saint George, patron saint of the church.

Architecturally, the church combines Romanesque elements (vetted nave of ridges, apse in cul-de-four) and posterior additions like the square bell tower with a pyramid of slates. Its location, on the edge of the Rue du Commerce and near the Creuse, highlights its historic anchoring in the urban landscape of Descartes. Traces of walled windows in the northern collateral remind its medieval origin.

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