Saint-Romain Church of Saint-Romain-de-Benet

The city retains a sometimes little-known heritage: its Romanesque church, whose characteristic silhouette dominates the surroundings, is an inseparable element, as is the tower of Pirelonge, a former Gallo-Roman beacon.

This rather atypical-looking building is the result of a multitude of reconstructions spread over nearly 8 centuries. If the first stone of the sanctuary was laid in the 12th century (the groups of columns bear carved capitals of 12th century invoice), this one will be very damaged following a fire, which occurred at the end of the Middle Ages during the Wars of Religion. Rebuilt economically, it was decided, around the 17th century, to restore it.
Ransacked in 1793, victim of revolutionary looting, the church remained under construction for a large part of the 19th century, when the vaults of the choir were replaced in 1830, before the Romanesque bell tower was raised, then in 1843 its apse and finally, in 1883, its facade was rebuilt in imitation of the Romanesque style (this one is pierced with an oculus, surmounting a portal with 4 archivolts resting on columns with capitals).

The characteristic/original element of this church is its line of cupolas, built in 1901 and left visible. Built in cement, they give the building a false oriental air. The sanctuary, which must originally have been in the shape of a Latin cross, has retained from its original structure only a nave made up of four bays, extended by a choir in a cul-de-four, which is pierced with seven bays. . 8 half-columns, distributed along the apse, serve as buttresses. The square bell tower rises on a spherical dome with pendentives; it retains a series of Romanesque arches in its lower part and is pierced with three thin openings in its upper part, according to a layout found in the church of Berneuil, a few dozen kilometers away.
The interior retains furniture dating mainly from the 19th century.

Several plaster statues, of rather naive invoice, are visible in the nave: they notably represent Saint Michael and Joan of Arc. The apse, cul-de-four, is decorated with murals representing a Christ in Majesty. At the entrance to the nave, on the left side, a capital dating from the 12th century has plant motifs. We will appreciate the majesty of the domes on pendentives, some of the capitals and the diagonal arrangement of the two altars between the nave and the heart.

Church open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. – Tel. 05-46-22-53-34