Eglise Saint-Martin
ChurchHidden Treasure
Eglise Saint-Martin, located in Lerné (Indre-et-Loire), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Lerné, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.1353, 0.1229
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00097805
Nestling in the heart of the Chinon region, the church of Saint-Martin de Lerné boasts a 12th-century Romanesque apse of rare elegance, crowned by columns with hooked capitals and enriched by exquisite Renaissance bas-reliefs.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
In the village of Lerné, a few leagues from Chinon in the Vienne valley, the church of Saint-Martin stands like a compendium of Touraine's sacred art over several centuries. Modest in appearance, it reveals to the attentive eye a remarkably coherent architectural layering, where each era has left its signature without ever disfiguring the whole. It is one of those rural churches in the Anjou-Touraine region which, far from being ostentatious, concentrate in a few square metres the essence of medieval and Renaissance building genius. What makes Saint-Martin de Lerné truly unique is the happy coexistence of its semi-circular Romanesque apse - pierced by round-arched windows framed by slender columns with hooked capitals - and its Renaissance vaults, which dress the nave in a light, late Gothic style. The bay, decorated with bas-reliefs carved into the keystones and transoms, is a real gem of 16th-century decoration in Touraine, and is all the more precious for having survived in its original setting. A visit to the church invites you to take a close look at the building: the side aisles added during the Renaissance enlarged the space without disrupting the original harmony, while the canted chevet, raised later on, creates an unexpected silhouette that is a pleasant surprise from the adjoining cemetery. Visitors should take the time to walk around the outside of the chevet to see the chronological layers carved into the Touraine limestone. The village of Lerné, surrounded by the vineyards and hedged farmland of the Chinonais region, extends the experience: this is the land of Rabelais, whose native abbey of Seuilly - to which the parish church of Lerné was attached - is just a few kilometres away. Visiting Saint-Martin also means treading on the land that the author of Gargantua knew intimately. A complete change of scenery, less than an hour from Tours.
Architecture
The church of Saint-Martin in Lerné has a single nave flanked by two aisles added in the 16th century, and ends in a semi-circular Romanesque apse that is its crowning glory. The materials used are those of the region: tuffeau, the soft white limestone typical of Touraine, easy to work and ideal for fine sculptures, which gives the buildings in the Loire Valley their distinctive luminosity. The apse is the architectural focal point of the building. Its round-headed windows, punctuated by slender monolithic columns topped by hooked capitals - a stylised plant motif typical of the Romanesque-Gothic transition at the end of the 12th century - form an elevation of great refined sobriety. The nave, rebuilt in the 16th century using a system of late Gothic ogives, contrasts harmoniously with the Romanesque rigour of the chevet. One bay stands out for its keystones and its transoms decorated with sculpted Renaissance bas-reliefs: foliage, floral motifs or symbolic figures whose iconographic programme deserves careful observation. Externally, the canted chevet, raised after the medieval construction, introduces an interesting volumetric break between the Romanesque drum and the roof. The side aisles, built in the 16th century in keeping with the style of the rebuilt nave, extend the side façades and probably open with simple round-arched or pointed-arched windows. The bell tower, a key feature of the village skyline, is probably typical of the stocky, massive Romanesque bell towers of Touraine, which were modified in later centuries.
Related Figures
Abbés de Seuilly — détenteurs du titre curial de Lerné, responsables de la présentation des curés et de l'entretien spirituel de la paroisse pendant plusieurs sièclesFrançois Rabelais (v. 1494-1553) — humaniste et écrivain natif des environs de Seuilly, dont l'abbaye tutrice de Lerné est intimement liée à son enfance et à l'univers de GargantuaMaîtres tailleurs de pierre tourangeaux (XIIe siècle) — artisans anonymes auteurs des chapiteaux à crochets de l'abside, formés dans les ateliers des grands chantiers romans ligériensSculpteurs renaissants locaux (XVIe siècle) — auteurs des bas-reliefs ornant la clé de voûte et les doubleaux, représentatifs de la diffusion de l'art de la Loire dans les chantiers rurauxCurés de Lerné (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle) — desservants successifs ayant supervisé les campagnes de revoûtement de la nef et du chœur
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Eglise Saint-Martin located?
Eglise Saint-Martin is located in Lerné, Indre-et-Loire department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
When was Eglise Saint-Martin built?
Eglise Saint-Martin dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Eglise Saint-Martin open to visitors?
Eglise Saint-Martin is currently closed to visitors.