Église Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur des Milandes, Medieval church in Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, France.
The Église Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur des Milandes is a church with a single nave and several side chapels built in the late 15th century. The interior features a straightforward architectural layout typical of religious buildings from that period.
The chapel was first mentioned in François de Caumont's will of 9 March 1514, written at the château des Milandes, where he asked to be buried in the "newly built chapel in honour of the Holy Virgin". Architectural study in 2018 dated the start of construction to the late 15th century. Sold as emigré property in 1794, it served as a barn, divided by an intermediate floor, before restoration in 1863 and use as a parish church from 1864.
The chapel was built for the Caumont family of the château des Milandes, with a high gallery linking castle to nave and a tribune above the west and south sides. It became the parish church in 1864, and in 1947 Joséphine Baker married Jo Bouillon there.
The church stands in the hamlet of Les Milandes, in the commune of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle in the Dordogne, a short distance from the château of the same name. The building is entered through an arched wooden door at the base of the grey stone facade, beneath a small mullioned window and a round blind window. Low trimmed hedges border the forecourt.
A 2019 excavation by the University of Bordeaux recorded 2,207 remains, including 1,885 human bones, in a vault from the mid-16th century. Gold plaques bearing the Caumont motto "Fiat via vi" identify members of that family, among them probably Jean de Caumont, his brother Geoffroy, Geoffroy's wife Marguerite de Lustrac and their son Jean, who died at eight.
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