Église Notre-Dame, Church in Monségur, France

Église Notre-Dame de Monségur is a Catholic church in the centre of Monségur, Gironde, at the corner of the rue de l'Église and the rue des Victimes-du-3-Août, next to the main square with its halles and arcades. Built of light beige stone, it has a tall square tower with a clock face, narrow arched openings, corner pinnacles and a pointed spire. A lower body with a sloping tiled roof extends beside it, divided by four tall square buttresses and lit by round windows and a barred rectangular window, with a dark wooden door at the lower right. Only the original apse survives from the 13th-century building.

The building began in the late 1200s as a simple hall church for a fortified bastide, and its doorway from that period survives. In the 1800s the nave and bell tower were reworked in neo-Gothic style, with the spire added in 1865 and the stained glass installed toward the end of that century.

The church stands at the corner of rue de l'Église and rue des Victimes-du-3-Août, a few steps from place Robert-Darniche, Monségur's main square with its covered hall and arcades. Its name, Notre-Dame, refers to the Virgin Mary, to whom the building is dedicated.

The church sits right on the main square, so you can reach it on foot while strolling through the village, and the area immediately around it is flat and easy to walk. Morning or late afternoon light makes the stone carvings on the door easier to see.

The church keeps only its original 13th-century apse; the rest was rebuilt and enlarged over the following centuries, mainly in the 19th century. It was listed as a monument historique on 21 December 1925. The building stands in the town centre at the corner of rue de l'Église and rue des Victimes-du-3-Août, beside place Robert-Darniche with its halles and arcades.