The Church of Francescas

The church

The first written document was dated of 1025 and signals its presence by the act of donation of the bishop of Agen to the abbots of Condom, on whom it is going to depend about five centuries. These same abbots undertook very big jobs of repairing in 1226. In 1526, Jean de Marre, Evêque de Condom, intervenes again for very major repairs in the church.

The church was rebuilt et the end of the 15th or in the debut of the siecle 16th, in a vessel edge laterales chapels. Important works have been performed in turn of 16th and 17th siecles, financed partly by the bishop of Condom, Jean Marre, and partly by the sale of oaks in communal wood.

The bell tower is strengthen by 1587, then its defences is demanteled. During the 1st quarter of the 17th siecle, the bell tower is destoyed:

In 1624, we know, that the amount of the debt owned by the parish comes to 3000 pounds. We already know that in 1226, the church was encircled with ditches, that its bell tower was overcome of parallel parkings and pierced of murder-holes and therefore served dices of defence before the creation of the bastide. Should see each other in this reality a reason of its big size to act as shelter, it was well needed in order to contain the biggest number of citizens.
In 1624: discussions for the building of a bell tower in the church of Francescas. Bernard Marcon and David, masters bricklayers promise to construct this clock tower which will have twelve and a half high canes and costs 1750 pounds.
It is the current bell tower which includes in the summit one wooden support for two bells.The roofing of the church and of the porch in front of the Western facade are restored in 1829.In 1849, Mister Planté install the clock, which will be changed in 1852.In 1861, a plan of restoration is offered by Greenfinch, architect of the arrondissement, and it was accepted by Raymond Vincent, businessman: chapels are divided by two arcades, the cover and the framework are done again, this paintings are still obvious. The Western facade is restaured by Lalanne, businessman from Lamontjoie, and finished in 1871. The fleche of the bell tower is rebuilt in 1921 following the plans of J. Nogue, architect from Nerac.
The church was completely renovated in 2007.

retour vers le haut