In the heart of the Blanzacais hills, in an old Templar commandery called "du Dognon", there was a chapel built in the middle of the 12th century.
It was restored at the beginning of the 20th century, three of the four walls still being covered with paintings representing the Crusaders' battles or mythical characters such as Geoffroy Martel, brother of Guillaume Taillefer.
The chapel respects the Cistercian rule, namely to gather "all the necessary things, namely: water, a mill, a garden, workshops in order to prevent the monks from going outside".
Recovered by the Hospitallers after the 1314 trial, the commandery was ruined by the 100-year war, the religious wars and the chapel sold as national property at the end of the 18th century to a farmer who rebuilt a roof to house his animals.
In 1902 the chapel was bought by the Protestant community of Barbezieux, which consolidated and restored it with stone replacements (vault, cornice, pilasters, portal arch, etc.). The Croix Cévenole certifies that it belongs to the Protestant parish.
The paintings on the east and west walls were restored by Miss Mesdrikoff who then glued the entire north wall to sheets from 1950 to 57. The resulting rolls were sent to national workshops for restoration. Then the whole painting was glued on a marine plywood to expose it for 10 years at the French Monuments Museum of the Trocadero. It was only at the end of the 1960s that the chapel recovered the decoration placed on mahogany wood latticework.
Temple Village
16250 Cressac Saint-Genis
Tel: 05 45 64 64 07 31
06 60 83 92 12
https://www.ageroman.org/parcours/charente/cressac.htm
