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2015-09-05 La Rochette, église Saint Sébastien, Charente, Poitou Charentes DSC9364

The church San Sebastian de La Rochette replaced in the 1180s building a robust eleventh century. His plan is simple: a single nave, transept crossing a fake and a semicircular apse.

The facade has a central portal to three naked arches and two side arches each containing a small carved tympanum. North tympanum (left has a equestrian figure stomping a little character. Latter holds a scholarship. So it can be a representation of the victory of virtue over greed, vice. Unless not necessary to see here a figure of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, symbolizing the triumph of the church over paganism.

To the south, presented under the guise of a bearded man squatting edge at full speed vice symbolized by a character riding a fantastic animal.

Some interpretations have this man as Samson the lion.

Above the portal, consoles indicate the past presence of a built in 1632 to enlarge the church and now defunct porch. A series of ornate corbels and confined by two columns window occupy the upper part of the facade.

Capitals in replacement were placed high up the corners of the front and side walls. These are punctuated by massive buttresses. Animals, plants and various characters adorn the corbels supporting the ledge to the north and south.

The apse is supported by two flat and shows no ornamentation foothills. A bell tower overcomes the false transept crossing. Its floor is drilled in 1905 recovered five openings: two kinds of loopholes in the west and a rectangular bay on each other faces.

Coverage of the building, recently restored (1980), consists of limestone slate.

Inside, the nave is covered with a broken and divided into three bays by arches falling on half-columns with carved cradle. Three bays are drilled north and south. Those in the north had been walled up in the early sixteenth century.

The full cradle vaulted arch above the apse false square topped by a cul-de-four and lit by an opening window in the south.

We also find this side of a swimming pool and two niches of cabinets.

The interior of San Sebastian offers fine examples of Romanesque sculpture. In addition to the palms and animal heads, we see, at the entrance of false square, a lion, one of the hind legs is devoured by a head. Its tail ends itself in the form of head. Cinch corner and scrolls adorn the capitals framing the entrance to the sanctuary.

The capitals of the nave have, among other characters grappling with ducks, lions devouring the arms of a man or an unfortunate armed with a spear and defending against a monster that already eats up a knee.

As the eardrums of the facade, most of these storied capitals involved a pervasive iconography in the decor of our medieval churches intended to illustrate the ongoing struggle between good and evil.

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Uploaded on June 27, 2016