The parish of Bagneux formerly depended on the diocese of Bourges, and it is on its territory that the castle of Belleperche was located, now disappeared, but made famous by an episode of the Hundred Years' War: while the Duchess of Bourbon dowager was staying there, he was taken by fierce English truckers. Duke Louis II himself did not succeed in freeing his mother.
The church, dedicated to Saint Paul, is a modest building with a single nave dating back to the Romanesque period, but remodeled in the 17th century. north side, asymmetrically. The choir is composed of a straight bay and a semicircular apse, decorated with an arcade made up of three semicircular arches framing the windows and separated by two miter arches. These arches are received on columns crowned with capitals with foliage or scales. The choir is covered with a continuous barrel vault, and the nave with an exposed framework; the columns supporting the triumphal arch were redone in the 19th century.
Outside, only a string of billets decorates the apse. The hexagonal bell tower is made of wood, covered with chestnut trees and stands at the rear of the west gable. This is pierced by a pointed arch door and a small window to the south. An old wooden porch, probably built at the same time as the bell tower in the 16th century, was removed in the 19th century.
The choir retains a terracotta floor bearing traces of yellow enamel, with rosettes formed by groups of four tiles, incised with circles. A double baptismal font, in Gothic style, and a mass foundation plaque from 1679 complete the current furnishings of the church, a processional cross from the parish being kept in the treasury of Moulins Cathedral.
For the restoration of the exterior walls of the apse, the Safeguarding of French Art paid €4,000 in 2003.
Translated by Google •
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