Eglise Notre-Dame, Medieval church in Lignières, France.

Notre-Dame de Lignières stands on the right bank of the Arnon, east of the village, reached by rue Colbert or a bridge over the river. It is a late Romanesque church with Gothic elements: the Romanesque apse, apsidoles, west portal and several carved capitals survive. The nave, rebuilt in the 1860s, has a pointed barrel vault on tall arcades, and a square tower with a clock replaced the 1635 dome in 1877.

A chapel existed here in the 11th century; Pope Paschal II's bull of 1115 mentions it and attached it to the castle. It was enlarged around 1170, consecrated only in 1450 by Jean Cœur, Archbishop of Bourges, and made a collegiate church with a chapter of canons by a bull of Sixtus IV in 1471. Pillaged and burned in 1563 during the first War of Religion, it was fully restored from 1863 on plans by Duchemin and Gallicher, with two side aisles added and a bell tower built in 1877 replacing a 1635 dome.

The name Notre-Dame refers to the Virgin Mary, to whom the church is dedicated. In 1471 Pope Sixtus IV raised it to a collegiate church with a chapter of canons, a status that shaped its liturgy for centuries. The 12th-century west portal and carved capitals from the Romanesque phase can still be examined by visitors.

The church stands on the right bank of the Arnon, east of the village centre, reached by rue Colbert or by the bridge over the river. The tower was made watertight between December 2013 and May 2014, so scaffolding may appear on its pointed roof. The west portal and the Romanesque apse are the parts to look for first.

The church keeps Romanesque remains: the apse and absidioles, the west portal and several carved capitals. It was listed on the supplementary inventory of monuments historiques on 2 March 1926. In 1877 a bell tower replaced the dome built in 1635, itself replacing an earlier spire.