Église Saint-Roch

Formerly called Saint-Sébastien, the church of Saint Roch dates from the 12th century. Standing on a large rock, the church, now dedicated to Saint Roch, is the former castle chapel of the lords of Uchon. The royal arms of France, consisting of three fleurs-de-lis, appear above the bell tower window. It is a small building measuring 21.50 m x 10 m, with a very simple barlong plan. An un-vaulted rectangular Romanesque nave is prolonged by a narrower transept crossing which opens, through a wide semicircular arch, onto a slightly oblong choir with a flat chevet and a sacristy. The chancel was built in 1347 by Queen Jeanne de Navarre, daughter of Louis X the Hutin and Marguerite de Bourgogne; it has an interesting ribbed roof, with wide arches hollowed out into cellars and resting at the corners on culs-de-lampe. A large lancet opening with a flamboyant filling illuminates the chevet. The round-headed windows in the nave have probably been enlarged. The gable wall of the western façade has a doorway with a very narrow window, but the entrance to the church is now through a side door. A rectangular bell tower rises above the transept. Like the rest of the building, it is covered with slates and has round-headed openings with bell-castings on the upper level. Thick glazed buttresses support the walls of the nave and choir. The altar in the chancel and those in the nave are decorated with elaborate gothic arcatures. To the left of the altar is a small niche with Gothic decoration which once contained a reliquary containing the remains of St Sebastian, the object of important pilgrimages following the plague epidemics of 1502 and 1652.

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