Saint-Sauveur de Bellême Church

The interior of the church contains some old features, but was largely rebuilt in the 19th century.

The choir is one step higher than the nave.^[16] The walls are covered with wood panelling from the Chartreuse de Val-Dieu dating back to the 18th century.^[17] Above the doors leading to the galleries of the sacristy are two paintings, also from the Carthusian monastery^[18] and dated 1768.^[16] One depicts Saint Anthony visiting Saint Paul the Hermit and the other Saint Bruno prostrate while another Carthusian digs a grave.^[18]

The centerpiece of the choir is the black marble, polychrome wood, gilded high altar. It dates from 1712 and occupies almost the entire space between the two doors.^[19] The pediment features Christ in Majesty.^[20] The altar box, in painted wood, ronde-bosse-style (in the round, free standing), is decorated with a Paschal lamb and two bas-reliefs.^[19] The one on the left, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, represents the Last Supper, and the one on the right the maundy.^[20] The five-sided gilded wood^[20] tabernacle is framed by four columns that define the niches containing the statues.^[19] The altarpiece is set back under a wide cornice and canopy supported by six black marble columns topped with Corinthian capitals.^[19]

The central painting depicts the transfiguration of Christ. Measuring 2.8 metres (9 ft 2 in) high and 2.1 metres (6 ft 11 in) wide, it was painted in 1705 by Jacques Oudry^[21] and installed in the church at the end of March 1706.^[22] The conseil de fabrique (parish church administration) paid the painter 165 livres for his work.^[22]

The nave is flanked by four chapels to the north and the same number to the south. Most of them are decorated with old copies of paintings.^[1]

Originally three in number, a fourth chapel was added at the end of the 19th century to restore symmetry with the southern chapels.^[23]

The first chapel up the nave, and the narrowest, is the Chapel of the Scapular.^[24] It houses a neo-classical altar and a painting of the Holy Family dating from the second half of the 18th century.^[25]

The second chapel was previously devoted to Saint Anne and has since been consecrated to the Virgin Mary.^[24] It was completely redecorated for the family of Aristide Boucicaut in 1878.^[26] On the outside wall, a marble funerary monument is adorned with an inscription in memory of the mother of the founder of Bon Marché.^[26] A Rosary painting by William Bouguereau adorns the altar and three mosaic medallions representing Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint James, and Saint Dominic^[26] complete the marble decorations.

The third chapel is dedicated to Saint Louis. It contains a classical-style altar built in the early 19th century and adorned with an altarpiece depicting the Entombment, painted in 1699.^[24]

The fourth chapel is devoted to Notre-Dame Auxiliatrice. Unlike the other more recent chapels, its window dates from the 15th century.^[16] The stained glass window, created between 1920 and 1925 by Louis Barillet and Jacques Le Chevallier, depicts the apparition of Saint Michael to Joan of Arc and commemorates the dead from World War I.^[27]

The dates engraved on the keystones indicate that these chapels were inaugurated consecutively during the 17th century.^[5]

Going up the nave, the first chapel is devoted to Saint Catherine of Alexandria. It features a painting of the Adoration of the Shepherds, by Nicolas Mignard, on a classical polychrome stone altar.^[28]

The second chapel contains a painting of Saint Thomas the Apostle touching the Five Holy Wounds. A copy of a painting by Francesco Salviati that is now in the Louvre.^[16]

The third chapel is currently dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, after having been devoted to Saint Louis until the mid-nineteenth century.^[16] A funerary monument in limestone and black marble is attached to the outside wall of the chapel.^[29] It is the tomb of Louis Petitgars, Seigneur de la Bergerie, who died in 1669 after founding the chapel in 1662.^[29]

The fourth chapel is devoted to Saint Joseph. It contains a painting of the four Evangelists by Nicolas-René Jollain, created in 1780 for the Val-Dieu Charterhouse, placed in the Alençon library in 1792, and then deposited in the church of Saint-Sauveur.^[30]

The baptismal font was created in 1684 by the Mance sculptor Durand.^[24] The basin rests on a support that widens out at the base.^[31] Three metres (9.8 ft) high and more than one metre (3 ft 3 in) wide, the basins and bas-reliefs are made of limestone, while the high reliefs are in stucco.

Above the basin lies an altarpiece divided into three panels.^[31] The baptism of Christ is depicted in the center.^[24] Beneath a sort of pediment, a bust of God the Father dominates the scene. Two statuettes of cherubs frame this central scene, despite the fact that the originals were stolen in the 1970s.^[24][32] The sides of the altarpiece are separated by Corinthian columns.^[18]

During the restoration of the church in the 19th century, the ceiling was repainted.^[23] Like many Normandy churches, it is composed of painted paneling covering an inverted hull frame made up of four sections at different angles.^[12]

• Association des amis du Perche, "Église Saint-Sauveur", Cahiers Percherons, no 51 "Bellême I", 1976 ISBN 2-900122-52-X.
• Philippe Siguret, "Bellême: History and Tourism", Cahiers Percherons, no 4, 1957.
• Émile Travers, La Normandie monumentale et pittoresque : Orne deuxième partie, Le Havre, Lemale, 1896 (read online archive).
• Louis-Joseph Fret, Antiquités et chroniques percheronnes, vol. 3, Glaçon, 1840 (read online archive).

• Resources on religion: Clochers de France Observatoire du patrimoine religieux (Religious heritage observatory)
• Resources relating to architecture: Mérimée