The best road cycling routes around Beaumont-Les-Autels

This ancient fortified castle dominates the Huisne Valley at 360° with its imposing keep. The building, with its troubled history, has undergone numerous modifications in its architecture and functions. A visit is essential to understand the complexity of its history and to observe the architectural evolutions.

A must-see that overlooks the valley.

Superb castle in the Perche!

In the Middle Ages, Saint-Avit-au-Perche was a priory of the abbey of Saint-Calais, founded by Avit's companion. Today's church dates from the very beginning of the 12th century. It consists of a five-bay nave ending in a semicircular apse. It is covered with chestnut shingles. Several original windows remain; others have been reworked (including the first window, on the north side). This can be seen in the shape of the keystones. A walled-up side door to the south can be seen from the outside. It has an enormous mitre lintel. Inside, it has been transformed into a niche housing Our Lady of Lourdes. The apse is flanked by projecting buttresses. Those at the corners of the façade are from the 15th century. The western portal in a pointed arch is a 15th-century renovation that was completely redone at the end of the 20th century.

The Saint-Lubin church, built on a sloping site, is a vast building with juxtaposed constructions, bearing witness to renovations and additions up to the 19th century, the oldest distinguished by the presence of grison, the most recent by limestone and flint. The sanctuary was ceded in 1077 by the monks of Saint-Denis de Nogent-le-Rotrou to the monks of the Saint-Père de Chartres abbey. Built in the 11th-12th century, the nave extended by a semi-circular apse is the oldest part of the church, in Romanesque style. In the thickness of the north walls of the nave are still visible the grison bonds which bear witness to the original openings. The building was considerably enlarged in the 15th and 16th centuries by the construction of a large transept, formed of two chapels, and a south aisle forming an alignment of gables attached to the slopes decorated with leafy motifs and finished with chimeras. The construction of the north aisle, just begun, was not finished. On the outside, on the west wall of the chapel, we can see the beginning of a first bay (stone arch and walls removed that remained unfinished). On the gable of the north transept, the walled door can be seen from the pointed arch and the ornate pinnacles, characteristic of the end of the 15th century. In the center, two animals present a coat of arms. On each side of the door, niches with canopies once housed statues. Above, we can still see a coat of arms presented by two bearded figures and probably surmounted by God the Father. According to local tradition, all or part of the extensions were due to the generosity of Florimont Robertet, who owned the barony of Brou from 1509 until his death in 1527, and it was because of this that the work was interrupted. Occupied by the revolutionaries, the building became a ten-day temple in 1794; it was finally returned to worship in 1802. Burnt down by lightning in 1813, the upper part of the bell tower, which was a slender spire, was replaced by the construction of a square limestone tower pierced with louvers. On the southern part of the bell tower, a turret provides access to the bells. In the southern part of the nave, a door, now blocked and highlighted by a basket-handle arch topped with a pinnacle, provided access to the cemetery that once surrounded the church. The building can boast of having preserved very uniform oak furniture, most of which was made in the second half of the 18th century.

Very pretty trompe l'oeil

Between the green hills of Perche, the Saint-Denis church contains a 16th century baptistery listed as a Historic Monument. Explanatory plaque at the entrance. This church is Romanesque in style and has a rounded apse and a quadrangular bell tower. The baptismal font dates from the 16th century. The church is surrounded by walls made of Saint-Denis stone.

Beautiful castle. Unfortunately it was closed.