Église Saint-Léger d'Ébreuil, Medieval church in Ébreuil, France.

Église Saint-Léger d'Ébreuil is a church built from the early 11th century, with a nave of five bays marked by plain rectangular pillars and a wooden roof. Its chevet, rebuilt in 1171, has five radiating chapels with pointed rib vaults and carved keystones. The massive bell tower-porch, inspired by Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, has wooden doors covered with red-tinted leather and bronze knockers shaped as lion heads.

Monks from Saint-Maixent-du-Poitou, fleeing the Norman invasions with the relics of Saint Léger of Autun, founded the abbey; King Lothair granted them the land of Ébreuil in 961. The present church was built in the early 11th century, and its five radiating chapels were added in 1171. During the Revolution it replaced the destroyed Notre-Dame as the parish church, and it was classified as a monument historique in 1914.

The name comes from Saint Léger, bishop of Autun, whose relics monks from Saint-Maixent brought here fleeing the Normans. On the south, west and north walls of the tribune above the narthex, Romanesque murals painted between 1085 and 1120 show Saint Austremoine, Saint Clement, the martyrdom of Saint Pancrace and the story of Saint Valerie. On the second and third south pillars of the nave, Gothic paintings made after 1416 depict Saint Blaise, Saint Laurent, Saint Antoine, Saint Léger and Saint Georges slaying the dragon.

The church stands in the bourg on the left bank of the Sioule, within the former abbey complex. Enter through the massive bell tower porch; the wooden door leaves are covered with red-tinted leather and the bronze knockers are lion-head protomes on inscribed plates. Inside, the Romanesque wall paintings are on the tribune above the narthex, on the south, west and north walls.

The bronze door knockers are shaped as lion heads holding a ring, set on a round plate inscribed in Latin: "adest porta per quam justi redeunt ad patriam" (here is the door through which the just return to their homeland). The wooden door leaves are covered with leather glued down and dyed red.