Saint-Saturnin de Vouillon: Romanesque capitals and stone of the dead
And also
The tops
The church
Lost in the middle of a small village, this little narrow church quietly sits near the road.
This church used to belong to a big monastery founded in the Middle-Ages, a dependency of Benedictine abbey of Déols.
The church was raised in the middle of the 12th century, then rebuilt after a fire. Wars of Religion completely damaged it.
So they restored it in the 19th century: they only left the Romanesque portal.
Come on, now, let’s see the portal: it seems the church had two floors in the past (a characteristic in Benedictine architecture of the 12th century).
Proof of that is this semi-circular portal flanks by capitals…
Inside the church, we notice the beautiful capitals (11th c.) with leaves, griffins and animals with their hanging tongues…
Dead’s stone
Did you notice this kind of slab in front of the portal?
What is it? A table? In fact, it’s a slab where people used to put the coffin during the burial…
They called it the stone of the dead, pierre des morts in French: a stone raised on two old capitals.