Royan : Saint-Pierre parish Church

The church, dating from the 12th century, has a single nave accompanied by a transept and a bell tower on the side. The current nave was initially covered with a cradle vault, whose starting points are still visible. At the crossroads of the transept, robust columns, leaning against pilasters, supported doubts. These columns display capitals decorated with masks and acanthus leaves. The capitals of the northwest column display patterns inspired by Roman antiquity. The current choir is at the bottom of a game that has been modified. Indeed, the original church was to extend beyond its current limits. The transept, on the southwest side, is based on a bell tower that dates from the same time as the nave. The upper part of the bell tower is more recent. In the corner between the bell tower and the nave stands a span whose broken cradle vault was to constitute an absidiole before the current door was created. The northeast section of the transept was modified at the end of the 12th century. It is divided into two spans by columns with hooks and tailli capitals, characteristics of the beginning of the 13th century. These two spans were vaulted in the 13th century with crusaders of warheads, as shown by the starting points of the ribs and the still visible form. Outside, a few sculpted crows mark the site of an old cornice that has disappeared. According to the orientation, the arrangement of the three windows of the southeast facade and the presence of the adjacent absidiole at the bell tower, it seems that the church was returned, the choir then occupying the current location of the nave, the church with a flat bedside. The destruction, on an undefined date, of the old nave has undoubtedly led to this inversion of the plan.