Église Saint-Martin de Templeuve, Parish church in Templeuve-en-Pévèle, Nord department, France.
Église Saint-Martin is a pale stone church with a tall tower on the left and a lower body extending right. The tower has three tall louvered openings below a round clock face in a square panel, topped by a steep grey spire. The main body has a sloping grey roof and four pointed-arch windows along its side wall, separated by buttresses.
Construction began in the 11th century and underwent major transformations under architect Paul Destombes' direction between 1880 and 1883, modernizing the structure while preserving historical elements.
The church keeps a bell bearing the arms of Charles V, cast in the 16th century and still housed in the tower. Since the 2000s a colony of Geoffroy's bats has occupied the nave, the only such colony in the Nord department; in 2016 the Coordination mammalogique du Nord de la France studied their behaviour and migration there.
The church stands on the Place de Templeuve in the village centre, its tower on the left of the main body when seen from the square. It was closed from 23 October 2020 because of dry rot in the roof timbers and reopened on 14 April 2024 after restoration. The red-and-white sign beside the nave marks the one-way traffic of the street.
The tower holds a 16th-century bell bearing the arms of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, not Charles V of France. The church also keeps a Sacre de saint Martin painted by Jehan Bellegambe in 1517 for the high altar retable. From the 2000s a colony of Geoffroy's bats settled in the nave, the only one in the Nord department.
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