Aulnay de Saintonge

The church of Saint-Pierre de la Tour at Aulnay de Saintonge lies south of Poitiers in western France and is one of the best examples of the Aquitainian style of Romanesque. It stands on the Via Turonensis pilgrimage road which came from Paris via the great shrine of Saint Martin of Tours on the way to Santiago de Compostela.

One of the features of Romanesque church building in the Poitou and Saintonge regions is the abundance of parish churches which display a surprisingly high level of sculpted material relative to the seeming importance of the building.

In spite of its name, Aulnay is not actually in the Saintonge but in the Poitou and it is celebrated for the particular richness of its sculptural progamme which dates from about 1140. The clip here shows the south porch which features a succession of concentric arches presenting an Apocalyptic theme. The subject of the outer arch is a vivid Bestiary. It has been suggested that this represents the procession of all living creatures who will appear at the End of Time. The inner arches portray the Twenty-Four Elders of the Book of Revelation and the Old Testament Prophets. The Elders are identifiable by their attributes: the instruments which they use to accompany the songs of praise as they surround the returning Messiah and the phials which contain the accumulated essence of the prayers of the saints.

The undersides of the voussoirs feature atlant figures taken from Greek mythology. They are derived from the faithless who are punished by spending eternity supporting the weight of the heavens.