Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Protestant temple of La Tremblade, inaugurated on August 24, 1823, is the oldest Protestant building on the Arvert peninsula. It replaces a first house built in 1757 under the protection of Marshal Jean Charles de Saint-Nectaire, after decades of persecution against Protestants. Its sober architecture, signed by the Bordeaux architect Burget, reflects the typical austerity of the 19th century Reformed Temples.

Under the Old Regime, La Tremblade, almost entirely Protestant at the end of the 16th century, saw its first temple erected in 1610, before being confiscated in 1681 and destroyed in 1880. The post-Revocation persecution of the edict of Nantes (1685) led to 620 inhabitants in exile. Despite the king's dragons and attempts at forced conversion, such as that of Fénelon in 1686, the "Desert Assemblies" remained clandestine.

The French Revolution restored freedom of worship in 1789. In 1810, the Reformed Consistory purchased land to build the current temple, inaugurated in 1823 in the presence of local authorities. The building, made of Saint-Savinien stone, has a neoclassical facade with triangular pediment and two stained glass oculi. Inside, a plaque commemorates the 49 deaths of World War I, and a chair framed with hymn paintings dominates space.

The temple remains an active place of the Protestant community, attached to the United Protestant Church of France. In 2023, its two-hundredth anniversary was celebrated by restorations (façade, parvis) and the addition of access for people with reduced mobility. The parish of the Saintonge Islands, founded in 1963, federates several temples in the region, including those of Oléron after a merger in 1979.

Among the notable pastors are Jean Mazauric (first pastor in 1802), Élian Cuvillier (theologist), and Agnès Adeline (pastor since 2024, also chaplain of prisons). The temple thus embodies two centuries of resilience and local anchoring of Protestantism in maritime Saintonge.

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