Discovery of a Christ in polychrome cross dating from the Renaissance

Name: Discovery of a Christ in polychrome cross dating from the Renaissance
Start: 2022-09-17T09:00:00+02:00
End: 2022-09-18T19:00:00+02:00
Location: Église Saint-Silvain-Bellegarde

Discover a Christ on the Cross Christ on the Cross currently in peril, made between the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

17 and 18 September 2022Passed

Conditions

Free. Free entrance.

©Commune de Saint-Silvain-Bellegarde

Discover a Christ on the Cross Christ on the Cross currently in peril, made between the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

This cross Christ was found by chance in 2010 in the attic of the presbytery during works. At the initiative of the Commune, it was immediately appraised, dated and inscribed in the inventory of Historical Monuments (2014). His previous presence (before or after the Revolution or the separation of the Church and the State), especially in the Church, does not appear in any archive. Its provenance is a mystery. Dated at the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century, it has an intriguing characteristic: an abdomen consisting of a patch, now missing; according to an expert, this configuration was seen in Italy and Spain at that time. It is in a very bad state; its degradation progresses irremediably (insect infestation). The Commune does not have the means to finance its preservation. The Municipality has proposed to entrust it to a museum. Alerted several times for more than ten years, the departments of the department and the State have, to date, not given any action to preserve it.

About the location

Église Saint-Silvain-Bellegarde

Le bourg, 23190 Saint-Silvain-Bellegarde

Creuse
Nouvelle-Aquitaine

The current building, inscribed since 1925 in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments, results from the reconstruction in the early seventeenth century of the primitive church of the thirteenth century which had been largely destroyed during the wars of religion, at the end of the sixteenth century. The presbytery, adjacent to the right-hand side of the church (present building of the restaurant), was built in 1752\. Important work was then done in the church in 1857\. The high altar regained its polychromy during its restoration between 1992 and 1995\. Struck down in July 2010, the bell tower, covered in chestnut shingles, had to undergo a heavy repair in 2012/2013.