Saint-Août church and its giant canopy
And also
The tops
The church
This church depended of Déols abbey and was mentioned in archives since the beginning of the 12th century.
They dedicated it to saint Aout: people called him Aigulphus! A hermit who lived here in the 9th century.
He became archbishop of Bourges and his relics were worshiped in the church, in the 13th century.
The church was altered in the 19th century: from the primitive church the Romanesque portal is still standing!
But come over here… there’s a surprise inside!
The canopy
A surprise? A canopy!
A canopy is an altar decoration, a kind of wooden baldachin with columns.
This one is a Baroque one, from the beginning of the 17th century, ordered for the Cordeliers convent of Châteauroux.
A local anonymous joiner made it, paid by prince de Condé with his own money, says the tradition!
Anyway, it’s gorgeous. A real wooden colossus! It’s about 9 metres high, 7 metres wide! And 15 tons of oak wood were used for its realization…
It moved in church of Saint-Aout in 1987, when Cordeliers convent was transformed into a museum.
It was completely restored: now we can admire its rich decoration, full of grapes and leaves...