Église Saint-Jacques de Bellebat

About

Saint-Jacques Church is a Catholic church in the commune of Bellebat, in the Gironde department, France.

Location: The church, oriented about 10° to the southeast, is on an esplanade in the west of the village.

The parish appeared at the end of the 11th century in the cartular of the abbey of La Sauve-Majeure when the church became priory of this abbey. Perhaps this church is older, from the eighth or ninth century, if one refers to its first patron saint Saint Christophe, a saint very popular in the early Middle Ages (since the end of the eighteenth century, the church has changed its patron saint by adopting Saint James). The present building was built in the second half of the 11th century. Its plan is very simple: a nave elongated from a single vessel, separated from the choir by a walk. The apse is arched in cul-de-four and the sanctuary is equipped with a cradle vault resting on four pillars with engaged columns. The geometric decorations of the capitals, like those of the bases of the columns, are novel. The two curved bays on the south and east sides date back to this time as well. The axial bay, more ebrased outside...