Overlooking the Gironde estuary, the Sainte-Radegonde church, in the picturesque village of Talmont-sur-Gironde, is an almost thousand-year-old place, worked by the sea and the winds. On the edge of a cliff, the site offers an exceptional panoramic view of the Gironde.
These stones, hollowed out by the centuries, have seen pilgrims pass by, risking their lives to reach the Bay of Biscay and reach the tomb of Saint Jacques de Compostelle, in Galicia. The Sainte-Radegonde church, a jewel of Romanesque art in Saintonge, was listed as a Historic Monument in 1890.
The building bears the name of a famous saint venerated since the 6th century in Poitou-Charentes. Daughter of the King of Thuringia, Radegonde was forced to marry the son of Clovis and King of the Franks, Clotaire I. After her brother was assassinated, she asked the Bishop of Noyon, Saint Médard, to give up her role as queen to devote herself to God. She retired to the monastery of Poitiers, where she welcomed the poor and the sick. After her death in 587, she was buried in Poitiers. Protector of sailors, a statue of the saint stands in the church of Talmont-sur-Gironde. A first building is mentioned as early as 1094, when Archpriest Guillaume Laier gave the peninsula to the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Jean-d'Angély. Tombs located at the foot of the church, dating from the Carolingian era, bear witness to the antiquity of this place, steeped in history. Pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela from Aulnay and Saintes took this route before reaching Soulac by sea or Bordeaux by land.
Between 1140 and 1170, Benedictine monks built a church in the Romanesque style. Only simple bays let in light, illuminating the white stone of Saintonge. The chevet, with its buttress columns, is decorated with checkerboards and sculpted figures. These decorative elements, taken from the medieval bestiary, can be found on the voussures, as well as on the capitals that support the pointed arches. The wind and the sea have continued to erode these stone ornaments. The nave collapsed in the 15th century, due to the fragile construction of the crypt, located below.
In 1284, the town of Talmont was purchased by the King of England and Duke of Aquitaine, Edward I. Transformed into a real fortress from the 13th century, the soldiers stood on the crenellated heights of the church. In the 15th century, cannons were installed on this platform, facing the sea, to dissuade ships from attacking Bordeaux. From the 14th to the 17th century, the church was the victim of violent clashes between the English, French, Huguenots, Catholics, Basques and Spanish. After the closure of this place of worship in 1794, extensive restoration work began in the mid-19th century. The cliff that supports the church was reinforced to protect it from the tides. The work undertaken in the 1930s aimed to harmonize the building and restore its original form. The platform used for military defense and the patrol path were removed to make way for a square tiled bell tower.