Église Saint-Médard

Brie

In the middle of the village of Brie, the church of Saint-Médard shows walls of limestone rubble, small irregular blocks partly rendered. Its very plain west façade, flanked by two flat buttresses, opens with a three-order arched portal topped by a window; beneath the window, four corbels betray a vanished porch roof. The nave, over twenty-two metres long and six wide, has only a plain ceiling, remade in the 19th century, and keeps an old doorway with a monolithic lintel. Near the south entrance open two recessed tombs: one is decorated with scallop shells, the other holds a sarcophagus attributed to the 12th century, carved with a cross that the commune calls Celtic, set between small columns with carved capitals bearing a slightly pointed arch and a frieze of small hooks. The tower was probably rebuilt in its upper parts at the end of the Middle Ages. The date of the church remains disputed: the commune and the tourist office see in the façade a pattern widespread in the 11th century and count Saint-Médard among the twenty or so surviving witnesses to the beginnings of Romanesque art in the former diocese of Angoulême, whereas Wikipedia dates it to the 12th and 13th centuries; the very uniform masonry makes any fine dating difficult. The village also keeps the memory of a bell dispute with Jauldes, the neighbouring parish, in 1793, which it tells as a tale of rival church towers.

Commune de Brie — L'église Saint-Médard ↗

Getting there : In the village of Brie, 42 ruette Saint-Médard. The Grand Angoulême tourist office states that it is open every day, all year round, for unguided self-visits (to be checked).

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound