Saint-Christophe Church

The name of Saint-CHRISTOPHE, to whom this imposing church is dedicated, means "Christ-bearer". According to the legend of the saint, he was a gigantic man and carried people across a river. One day a small child called to him and he carried it on his shoulders to the other bank. Amazingly, the child became heavier and he said he felt as if the weight of the whole world was on his shoulders. Then the child revealed himself to him as Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer of the world.

Large homogeneous massive church from the 12th century built on a classical Latin cross plan. (single nave, transept with apsidioles, apse), having undergone alterations around the 13th century (west facade, vaulting of the nave). The Wars of Religion caused serious damage to it in 1574. Restorations in the 18th and 19th centuries changed its appearance: leveling then heightening of the choir, replacement of the bell tower (which must have been on the crossing) by a campanile, addition of buttresses. The repairs are carried out in cut stone over the Romanesque walls that have been spared. In the 19th century, the vaulting and pillars of the nave, the crossing and the choir were strongly reworked. The penultimate restoration campaign in 1996-1997 allowed the total repair of the roofing, of the comforting masonry work. The last in 2014 allowed the repair of the bell and the operating mechanism of the movement, the resumption of the masonry of the campanile, the drainage and the reorganization of the rain flows and the installation of a lightning rod.The building has a Latin cross plan. The west facade, divided into three registers by horizontal cords, opens with a large portal with columns and three semi-circular scrolls. A small bell tower with one bay, from the Classical period, is built between the nave and the crossing. The apse has a hexagonal apse.
The interior of the nave has isolated neo-Romanesque columns which carry a vaulting of brick ribs. The choir and the crossing are also covered with 19th century vaults. Only the arms of the transept retain their stone cradle and the apsidioles their bottom of the oven. This church is one of the few in Saintonge to have kept its transept with apsidioles intact.
The church is listed as a historic monument in its entirety (ie AI 9) by order of July 23, 2003.
To note
Balustrade of the 18th century wooden choir.
18th century sculpted, painted and gilded wooden altarpiece, with statues of angels and Renaissance rings (Saint-Jean and Saint-Christophe).
18th century wooden statue of Sainte-Emérance
Contemporary stained glass windows by Jean Moret.
Bronze bell, 1525.
A Romanesque inscription from 1205, on the southeast plane of the apse. "The year 1270 died, Louis King of France, handing over his soul to the august King of Kings".
To the east of the apse, an engraving of a horseman similar in style to the church of Moings.