Église Saint-Martin, Medieval church in Ambierle, France.

Église Saint-Martin in Ambierle is a former Benedictine abbey chapel, rebuilt in the 15th century, with a steep roof of glazed tiles laid in a yellow and dark brown geometric pattern. Its walls are of squared light-brown stone, pierced by a tall pointed-arch window with stone tracery and dark glass. A campanile was added over the crossing in the early 19th century.

A Benedictine abbey dedicated to Martin of Tours founded the site in the early Middle Ages; it joined the Cluny order in 938 and became a priory in 1101. The 11th-century Romanesque chapel built by Odilon of Cluny burned in 1441, and prior Antoine de Balzac d'Entragues rebuilt the church in the 15th century. A second fire in 1746 led to repairs, the last monks left in 1788, and Prosper Mérimée placed the church on France's first list of historic monuments in 1840.

The retable of the Passion was bequeathed to the priory in 1476 by Michel de Chaugy, counsellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Its central section holds six polychrome walnut statues of the Passion, from the crucifixion to the resurrection. The painted shutters are attributed to Rogier van der Weyden or to an anonymous master known as the Master of Ambierle; the outer panels show donors with their patron saints.

Visits require advance registration and a minimum group size of five participants for guided tours to be arranged. You can book through the Alice Taverne Museum, which coordinates access to the church.

The stained glass windows created between 1470 and 1485 display the coat of arms of Antoine de Balzac d'Entragues, Bishop of Die and Valence. This detail reveals the church's connection to the high ecclesiastical authority of that era.