Église Saint-Saturnin de Pont-Saint-Esprit, Gothic church in Pont-Saint-Esprit, France.
Église Saint-Saturnin is a late Gothic church on Rue du Nord, a few dozen metres from the Rhône and near Saint-Pierre church. Its square bell tower, built of rough light brown and grey stone, rises in stages separated by plain cornices: a louvered round-arched window low down, two large arches each holding a dark bell, and two smaller arched openings above. The tower was completed in the 19th century.
Saint-Saturnin is documented in 984 as the church of the Saint-Saturnin-du-Pont priory, given by Géraud d'Uzès to Cluny Abbey. The present late Gothic building was reworked in the 1340s, with major works in the 15th century funded by parishioners. Its portal was built between 1485 and 1490, probably by Blaise Lécuyer, and the church was consecrated in 1535. Sacked and burned by the baron des Adrets in 1562, it was restored between 1595 and 1600.
The church was sacked and burned by the Baron des Adrets in 1562, and its vaults and side chapels were demolished. The side chapels were rebuilt between 1848 and 1865. The 15th-century building works were financed by the parishioners themselves, and Antoine de Joyes, a salt farmer and rector of the hospital work in 1473, contributed largely to the construction.
The church sits near the Rhône River and is easily accessible on foot from the town center. Its location near other religious monuments makes it convenient to visit multiple sites during a single outing.
The priory's seal was used on 13 September 1265 to seal the act laying the first stone of the Pont-Saint-Esprit bridge. The seal was found during works at Saint-Alexandre on 23 July 2010 and is now kept in the town's museum of sacred art. The religious of Saint-Saturnin helped finance the bridge, completed in 1309.
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