BRIEF PRESENTATION OF THE BUILDING

BRIEF PRESENTATION OF THE BUILDING

The church of Saint Etienne d’Orthe is situated in the center of the village, in the local churchyard. The building, normally positioned, is made of a porch-church tower in the West opening on a nave of two bays with two side aisles.

The nave opens onto a choir sheltered by a polygonal chevet of the XVth and XVIth centuries. The plan of the chevet is normally positioned but with an axle slightly bent toward the North. A porch-church tower rises in the West and leads up to a nave whose bays are flanked by collaterals. The nave opens on to a choir in the polygonal apse of the chevet. A sacristy occupies the South-east inner angle formed by the wall of the chevet and the collateral. The sides of the chevet date back to the XVth or beginning of the XVIth century. They are supported by angular buttresses. In each side a big opening has been walled up since the installation of an altarpiece. The southern side has a smaller gothic opening. The collateral walls bearing gutters are set with semi-circular windows dating back to the end of the XIXth century. The wall of the northern collateral has marks of masonry alterations. In 1739-40 the collaterals were created from lateral chapels. They are lit up by semi-circular windows.                                                                                       

The porch-church tower dates back to the XVIIth or XVIIIth century. It replaced a simple church tower and it was built against the original front of the church which has kept its dripstone of the XVth or beginning of the XVIth century.

Sources: ACMH M. Thouin  November 2006 protection file MH

 

A few dates:

  •  XIth XIIth: church mentioned in the cartulary of Dax bishopric.                                                                              
  •  Rebuilding XV beginning XVIth   
  •  Collaterals added ( no precise dates)  
  •  1714: high altar and altarpiece : finished (Giraut and Royer)  
  •  1734: plan of the sacristy (architect from Dax)     
  •  1739/40: northern collateral part reconstruction of St Nicholas chapel     
  •  1823: estimate: repairs by Knight Caupenne (engineer: Voyer)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
  •  1824: building of an arch and two stone pillars to support the gallery.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
  •  1826/1835: important work with the reconstruction of St Nicholas chapel
  •  1875/1876: restoration of the sanctuary     
  •  1877: restoration of the altarpiece
  •  1886: the openings of the church tower arerepaired                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
  •  1897: the deliberations of the town council point out that the priest has changed the openings without authorization.                                                                                                              
  •  1899: restoration of the sanctuary                                                                                           
  •  1931: repairs of the church tower and roof                                                                                                  
  •  2002: acknowledgement: the church is unchanged and the door of the enclosure is renovated                                                                                                                                  
  •  2008: On 10 January 2008 the church is totally registered with the Historic Buildings               
  •  2009/2010: repairs of the roof by the town council    
  •  2015/2016: restoration of all the façades of the church under the control of Jean Petrau and Jean Kervadec

 

 

Bibliography:                                                                                                                                                                       Database: MERIMEE reference IA40000244                                                                                                                                                 Regional keeping of Aquitaine MH n°6 Landes Canton Peyrehorade                                                                          Protection File of Architect M Thouin, Nov.2006