Collégiale des Roches-Tranchelion, Medieval collegiate church in Avon-les-Roches, France

The Collégiale des Roches-Tranchelion stands in ruins at Avon-les-Roches: a grey weathered masonry wall pierced by two large pointed arches, the left open to the sky, the right holding a smaller opening above a blocked lower part. Above them the wall rises unevenly, the right side forming a tall jagged tower-like mass. Vertical buttresses flank the arches; ferns and shrubs cover the base.

Lancelot de la Tousche, lord of the Roches-Tranchelion estate, began building the collegiate church around 1510 on the site of the castle chapel founded in 1440 by Guillaume de Tranchelion. The works lasted about fifteen years, and in 1527 Martin de Beaune, Archbishop of Tours, consecrated it to Saint John the Baptist. Served by five chaplains, it was both a family burial place and a parish church.

The name Tranchelion comes from a Limousin family whose seat was at Pierre-Buffière, near Limoges; three legends explain it as a lion being beheaded. The collegiate church, consecrated in 1527, was served by a college of five chaplains and held both family burials and parish functions. The site has been classified as a monument historique since 1914.

The ruins stand in open ground about two kilometres east of Avon-les-Roches, reached by road from the village; the site is classified as a monument historique since 1914. The masonry is unprotected, with ferns and shrubs at the base of the walls, so paths are uneven and there is no shelter. Look for the two pointed arches in the surviving wall, the left one open to the sky.

The collegiate church was consecrated in 1527 by Martin de Beaune, Archbishop of Tours, and dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. It was served by a college of five chaplains and held both family burials and parish functions. The fief was also called "Roches-l'Archidiacre" and depended on the castellany of L'Île-Bouchard.