Localisation
The church is located in the French department of Lot-et-Garonne, in the town of Lamontjoie.
History information
The bastide of Lamontjoie de Saint-Louis was founded in 1298 by the Seneschal of Agenais. Philippe le Bel confirms the founding act of the bastide the following year. Tradition has it that he offered the relics of Saint Louis to the country house. The lord of Lamontjoie was the king of France.
The first Saint-Louis church dates from this period. Some elements remain in the north wall of the church.
The church was rebuilt and probably enlarged to the east in the 16th century following a plan traditional in the 15th century in Languedoc, with a single nave and chapels between the buttresses, from the interior bare of the buttresses to the plain side facades. The choir is offset from the nave. The keystones of the choir must date from the 2nd quarter of the 16th century.
The vaults of the nave were built in the middle of the 19th century, under the episcopate of Jean-Aimé de Levezou de Vesins. One of the keystones bears the arms of the bishop.
The walls of the nave were raised in 1874 and the frame of the church completely redone by the carpenter Alexandre Richefort, under the direction of the departmental architect Léopold Payen.
The bell tower, to the west of the nave, leaning against the south wall of the nave, and the western facade show major damage in 1899 and must be demolished. The reconstruction project of Léopold Payen and his son, Édouard Payen, was accepted in 1900, without the planned spire of the bell tower, and with a limited decoration due to lack of funding. Financial assistance from Ms. Fournet made it possible to create the decorative sculptures for the west elevation and the bell tower.
The building is listed as a historical monument on November 1, 1984