Salvator church of Bellême, Catholic church in Bellême, France.
The Salvator church of Bellême is a classical-style building 48 metres long and 15 metres wide, with a west bell tower-porch, a 14-metre-wide nave flanked by four chapels on each side, and a five-sided choir. The tower is built of hard silicified limestone with four buttresses, Ionic capitals on the portal, and niches holding statues of evangelists and a cast-iron Christ.
The church was built upon 15th-century foundations but underwent major reconstruction in the 17th century under the direction of Jean Palastre. Continued modifications and improvements took place in subsequent decades.
Locals call it simply "the church of Bellême", since it is the town's only surviving church. On 31 March 1789 the three orders of the province of Perche gathered here for a solemn mass before deliberating on the Estates General. Today it hosts parish celebrations and concerts alongside Sunday mass.
The west porch tower opens onto the nave through a five-sided stoop; the choir lies one step above the nave at the east end, with the sacristy and its horseshoe galleries behind the five-sided apse. The nave is 14 m wide and lit by narrow, spaced windows, so the choir is darker than the rest.
The choir's 18th-century wood panelling came from the Chartreuse de Val-Dieu, a Carthusian monastery. Above the doors to the sacristy galleries hang two paintings also from that monastery, dated 1768: one shows Saint Anthony visiting Saint Paul the Hermit, the other Saint Bruno prostrate while a fellow Carthusian digs a grave.
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