The church of Coucoury, built along a Roman road, succeeded older sanctuaries of which only a few traces remain. It is dedicated to Saint-Martin. Most of the single nave building that exists today dates from the second half of the 12th century.
Outside, the apse is the most remarkable element; it is limited, on either side, by two buttresses and divided, by two semi engaged columns, into three parts each pierced with a semicircular window. The whole is unified by an elegant border surmounting the windows and connecting them to each other. This very simple harmony is completed by a modillion cornice.
On the south wall, the elevation of the nave has preserved fragments of a facing of small cubic rubble and traces of windows, witnesses of an older construction (11th century). This wall is pierced by three Romanesque windows.
The square bell tower is massive. It is covered with a four-sloped, almost flat roof, and has two of its faces with beautiful twin Romanesque windows.
At the end of the 15th century a chapel was added on the north side. Finally, the western facade is much more recent; indeed the nave, lengthened by nine meters in 1770, ends with a classic facade of fairly good quality with its bosses and its pediment. We can regret the elevation of this new facade in the 18th century because it deprives us of the 12th century facade.
You enter the church through a bare door surmounted by a rectangular bay and an imposing triangular pediment (late 18th century).
Inside, the nave – high, quite large and without side aisles – is lit by five pierced semicircular windows pierced in the 18th century. The stained glass windows were made in 1869. The walls, in exposed rubble, reveal breaks in the structure, which makes it possible to distinguish the constructions of the Romanesque period from those of the Classical period. In particular on the south wall where you can still see the walled bays of the first Romanesque building (11th century).
On the left as you enter: an original stone baptismal font, made up of two twin basins and engraved with eight crests bearing the names of priests. These baptismal fonts date from the 17th century.
At the other end of the nave: a stone pulpit dating from 1876.
It is a very beautiful Romanesque church in the Saintonge countryside where the centuries have mixed styles for the greatest pleasure of the eyes.
Translated by Google •
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