Church of St. Eutrope, Saintes

The Basilica of Saint-Eutrope de Saintes is one of the main Catholic shrines in the city of Saintes, in the French department of Charente-Maritime and the diocese of La Rochelle and Saintes. On May 11, 1886, an apostolic brief from Pope Leo XIII erected the church as a minor basilica.

Founded in 1081, at the instigation of the Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou William VIII, and consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1096, it honors Saint Eutrope, martyr, first bishop and evangelizer of the region. His tomb, placed in the crypt, has been visited since that time by many pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. The abbey of Cluny, to whom the church was entrusted from the beginning, favored the establishment of a priory with up to twenty monks, responsible for the celebration of the cult and the organization of the pilgrimage. The Revolution brought about the definitive closure of the priory.

The church, considered dilapidated by the prefect Ferdinand Guillemardet, was amputated of its nave in 1803. Until then, Saint-Eutrope was one of the largest religious buildings in the region: its nave covered the whole of the current square. It was also one of the most original, because of its division into an upper and a lower church, with a system of staircases meeting in the center of the vessel which allowed an easy circulation of pilgrims.

A masterpiece of the Romanesque art of Saintonge, Saint-Eutrope also incorporates elements of other styles, such as the spire, a pure product of the flamboyant Gothic style, built thanks to a donation from King Louis XI. The work of the architect Jean Lebas, it reaches a height of nearly 80 meters. The choir, also Gothic, dates from the 16th century, and the current facade, a Romanesque pastiche of great sobriety, dates from the 19th century. The basilica still has numerous Romanesque capitals that are extremely well preserved, as well as a series of stained glass windows from the Gesta workshop in Toulouse, the Dagrant workshop in Bordeaux, and the Léglise workshop in Paris.

The basilica is classified as a historical monument by the list of 1840. It is also listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO as part of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela in France.