Basilique Saint-Martin d'Aime, Romanesque church in Aime-la-Plagne, France.
Basilique Saint-Martin d'Aime is a Romanesque building with a central nave, a transept, and three apses that form the eastern end. A crypt beneath the church displays original Roman artifacts from ancient times.
Axima was the capital of the Ceutrons, not a Roman foundation of 21 BC. A first church stood here in the 5th–6th centuries; excavations by Étienne-Louis Borrel (1868–1877) found a 2nd-century civil Roman basilica and a 7th-century church beneath the present building. The Romanesque priory church, dependent on Sacra di San Michele, dates to the 11th century and was listed in 1875.
The choir and its surroundings carry wall paintings from the late 12th and early 13th centuries, plastered over in 1696 and brought back to light during the excavations. Creation and Paradise can still be made out, while the Massacre of the Innocents is only half visible. The church was never a parish church: only a single Sunday mass was held there.
Access is normally available through organized guided tours during the warm months of July and August. It is best to ask ahead and be prepared to walk through the interior of the building.
The name "basilica" comes from the 2nd-century civil Roman basilica found beneath the church during excavations led by architect Étienne-Louis Borrel between 1868 and 1877; it does not mean the church holds the title of minor basilica. The two bell towers were destroyed in 1794 during the French Revolutionary occupation of the Duchy of Savoy, and only one was rebuilt.
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