Église Saint-Jacques de Pirmil, 12th-century parish church in Pirmil, Nantes, France
Église Saint-Jacques de Pirmil is a Latin-cross church in Nantes whose oldest parts, the Romanesque chevet and transept chapels, date to the late 12th century. Its long side wall is red and brown brick between tall grey ashlar buttresses, pierced by three round-arched windows under a stone cornice. The nave runs 40 metres in three bays; the façade was rebuilt in 1843 by architect Théodore Nau.
The parish is first documented in a papal bull of 1179, and an arcade keystone bears the date 1180. In 1484 Bishop Thomas James restored part of the church and built a triple-arched porch with two statues. The Nantes architect Théodore Nau reworked the facade and the south walls in 1843 and restored the church in 1849-1850; it was listed as a monument historique on 24 April 1997.
The tympanum of the Romanesque doorway carries a bas-relief of the angel, the ox, the eagle and the lion, the four evangelists. Since Pentecost 2003 the parish has been Saint-Jacques Saint-Jean Sainte-Famille, grouping the communities of Pirmil, Saint-Sébastien and Vertou, whose first shared mass was celebrated on 20 October 2002.
The church is located on Rue Saint-Jacques and is easily accessible by public transportation from central Nantes. Visitors can drop by on weekdays, and the site offers open access to explore the exterior and surrounding area.
On the keystone of the arch separating the transept from the choir, an inscription in Arabic numerals, added in the 19th century, gives 1180 as the year of construction. The oldest written trace of the parish is a papal bull of 1179. The church was listed as a monument historique on 24 April 1997.
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