Church of Sainte-Béatrice
Sainte-Béatrice de Landrais church is located in Aunis in the Poitou-Charentes region. Built in the 13th century, it has walls with striking buttresses, reminiscent of its original construction in the Romanesque period. The church includes a single nave separated from the choir by an arch and a small bell tower which houses the Adelaide bell, cast in 1901. It houses a Louis XV altarpiece carved and painted stone of the seventeenth century.
About this building
Sainte-Béatrice de Landrais church is located in Aunis in the Poitou-Charentes region. Built in the 13th century, it has walls with striking buttresses, reminiscent of its original construction in the Romanesque period. Aunis is the result of the merger of two parishes: Saint-Jean-du-Breuil whose abbey and priory have existed since 1675, and Landrais with its parish of Sainte-Béatrice and the castle of the Lord of Culant, which was inhabited in 1685 by the Marquis Jacques de Culant. The Lord abjured, in the medieval church, Protestantism for the catholic religion. Under the reign of Louis XIV (XVII-XVIII centuries), the parish had François Nicolai as parish priest for 61 years, who had the church adorned, build the sacristy and rebuild the presbytery using his own money.
The church has a single nave separated from the choir of the same width by a triumphal arch. The semicircular apse has been replaced by a flat chevet pierced by a Gothic bay. A small bell tower with a square base was built in 1848, rising on the side between the nave and the choir. It houses ‘Adelaide’ - a bell that celebrated the its 100th year in 2001.
The church houses a Louis XV carved altarpiece of painted stone, made between 1663 and 1686 and registered in the Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments since 1971. There are two large statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. The central niche still houses a statue of the patron saint of the place: Saint Beatrice, but it is a plaster model of the nineteenth century. The altar and tabernacle are also newer than the altarpiece itself.
