Eglise Saint-Julien

The site of Laizy occupies the location of a Gallo-Roman villa owned by the bishop of Autun as early as the 6th century and given to the cathedral at the beginning of the 7th century. According to legend, the church was built on the spot where Saint Julien de Brioude, accompanied by Saint Léger, threw his hammer. A first church existed in the 10th century. The church depended on the chapter of Autun cathedral, of which it is contemporary, since the 1120's. It is possible that the church was also built under the impulse of bishop Etienne de Bagé. In the 15th or 16th century, a seigneurial chapel was added. A fire around 1640 caused the vaults of the nave to collapse. The church was remodelled in the 17th century and huge buttresses were added in 1687 to stabilise the building. The capitals were listed in 1950 and the church was restored in the late 20th century.
The church dates from the second quarter of the 12th century, with the chancel estimated to have been started in the 1120s and the nave completed around 1140. The plan has a nave of three bays with aisles, a slightly projecting transept and a semi-circular apse preceded by a chancel bay. A Gothic chapel is attached to the south of the choir and a sacristy to the north. The exterior has been completely altered and is hardly Romanesque in appearance. The bell tower, on the transept crossing, is open with simple bays. The large buttresses against the façade, the nave and the transept are from the 17th century. The façade and the portal are modern in appearance. Only the apse is typically Romanesque in its structure and its bays. Some modillions with simple volutes can be seen.
The interior is still Romanesque. The nave has three bays with side aisles. The Romanesque vaults no longer exist, they have been replaced by flat ceilings. It can be assumed that the nave was originally vaulted with a broken barrel vault on double slats and that the aisles were covered with ribs. The square pillars, flanked by pilasters with imposts and capitals, are still standing. They support the large semicircular arches marking the only floor above. The aisles, also with ceilings, have walls with bays and pilasters with undecorated capitals. The transept is supported by four cruciform pillars flanked by pilasters, of which those to the east are fluted. Double scrolled pointed arches support the cupola on trunks, which has been rebuilt. The transept vaults open onto the side aisles through pointed arches with transoms. The pink granite choir is the most ornate part of the church. The right-hand bay, also with a pointed barrel vault, has two arcades with fluted pilasters on the north side. The semi-circular apse has two bays and seven round arches on granite columns with capitals. The triumphal arch, with its broken profile, falls on two fluted pilasters with capitals. To the south is the seigniorial chapel of Saint Hubert, in Gothic style, with a pointed vault and the shrine of the saint.

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