Mailhat

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Mailhat
Mailhat (France)
Mailhat
local community Lamontgie
region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department Puy-de-Dôme
Arrondissement Issoire
Coordinates 45 ° 29 ′  N , 3 ° 19 ′  E Coordinates: 45 ° 29 ′  N , 3 ° 19 ′  E
Post Code 63570

Mailhat - town view with church

Mailhat is a small village with only about 50 inhabitants in the Puy-de-Dôme department ( Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region ), which belongs to the municipality of Lamontgie . Old spellings of the place name are: Maxliacum, Maislac, Malhac, Malhat or Maillat .

location

Mailhat is just under twelve kilometers (driving distance) southeast of Issoire on the eastern edge of Limagne .

history

The place and church of Notre-Dame von Mailhat belonged to the Cluniac Priory of Sauxillanges , which is only eight kilometers away (as the crow flies) . Until the French Revolution , Mailhat was the main town of the parish, the boundaries of which roughly coincided with the area of ​​today's canton capital, Lamontgie.

Attractions

  • The almost idyllic townscape of Mailhat is that of a quiet, small rural community whose houses are dominated by the bell tower of a Romanesque church.
  • The Notre-Dame de Mailhat church, registered as a monument historique as early as 1859, dates from the last quarter of the 12th century and was possibly a private chapel of the prior of Sauxillanges - otherwise the solid construction and the elaborate architectural decoration could not be explained. As with many churches in Auvergne and the south of France, the design of the west facade plays no or only a subordinate role. You entered the church through the south portal, which was stepped back several times and provided with beautiful archivolts , with an undecorated - formerly perhaps painted - tympanum . The wooden doors have beautiful late Gothic decorative carvings in the flamboyant style (above) and old ironwork (below). The interior of the church consists of a single-nave room with three bays and a clover-leaf-shaped apse . Half-column templates with interesting capitals (griffins, sirens, bearded men, etc.) stabilize the outer walls and at the same time support the pointed barrel vault . On the polygonal clad apse there are 5 arcades with set rotated columns; These are difficult to manufacture and require great craftsmanship and spatial imagination on the part of the stonemasons - perhaps this is one of the reasons why they are rarely found in medieval architecture. The two-storey square - and therefore rather unusual for the Auvergne - crossing tower with its pointed arcades with columns set in the middle comes from the 15th century. Overall, the almost windowless church cannot deny a certain defensive character.

  • Mailhat - east view of the church

  • Mailhat - west portal of the church

  • Mailhat - south portal of the church

  • Mailhat capitals

Web links

Commons : Mailhat  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files