Sunday, 22 September 2013

Church on Sunday...Bridoré

Our Patrimoine visits of last weekend obvioosly had to include the churches of the places we visited, yhese will feature over next couple of weeks.First Saint roch's in  Bridoré.



 The church of Saint Roch in Bridoré you see today is what remains after the destruction of the nave and transepts in the 18th century.



A new simple facade was added to seal up what was left of the church.


Once through the doors  you feel glad that they did rescue what was left...


The altar sits in an apse which is adorned by frescoes under a fine vaulted ceiling.



Here are some of surviving stained glass windows.





There is a 16th century statue of Saint Roche inside the church that was recovered from the graveyard where it had been buried for some time.When you look at this it appears at first that his legs have been carved differently...


but on closer inspection you will see that first,on the left, is the hand of a child offering the saint a drink of water but the rest of him is missing and on the right you can see two legs of a dog again with the body missing,so it did not survive unscathed. 


Not-so-secret door.


There is a 16th century 'relief' depicting the 'vision of Saint Hubert'...


and 'stations of the cross'.


There is a baptismal font with some recovered stonework...


...plus...


...plus...


...not sure what this depicted.


There is a trapdoor on the floor leading to an empty crypt that was apparently ransacked at the same time as the nave was destroyed.

Where's Joan...sadly not featured here.


Walking around the exterior of the church it becomes much more obvious that it is only part of what was a larger building.






In this picture you can see the revealed stonework that would have linked the now lost transept to the main body of the church. 


There is also a fine example of the building method displayed .



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