Church of Saint-Clair
The Church of Saint-Clair of Saint-Porquier, Occitania was built in the sixteenth century, on the foundations of an older, eleventh century building that was ruined during the Hundred Years War. The building is of Southern Gothic style. It consists of a nave that opens on a three sided choir, flanked with side chapels. An octagonal bell-tower is flanked by a staircase turret. The interior was painted in the late nineteenth century.
About this building
The church of Saint-Clair is located in Saint-Porquier, in Occitanie. The current church was built in the sixteenth century, on the foundations of an older, eleventh century building that was ruined during the Hundred Years War. The work was delayed because of the religious wars, meaning that the vault and the bell tower were only finished around 1614.
The church is built in the Southern Gothic style. It consists of a central nave, that opens onto a three sided choir that is flanked north and south with side chapels housed between the buttresses. The Toulouse style octagonal tower has a hexagonal turret staircase. The interior was decorated and painted at the end of the 19th century with stencilled motifs.
Among the furniture, there are several seventeenth century statues; in particular, a polychrome wooden Virgin and Child , a gilded wooden Virgin and Saint John from a Calvary, and Saint Clair and Saint Porchaire made from painted wood and a red marble font. Surveys carried out in the 1990s discovered17th century wall paintings.
