Colombiers - Saint-Maclou

Colombiers is a small village (pop. 300) in the former marshes of the Seugne river. Life must be hard here in medieval times. Saint-Maclou, the village´s parish church, was erected in the 12th century. It was the church of a priory, dependent from the Benedictian Abbaye Saint-Sauveur in Charroux. The church got altered and modified during the Gothic period (15th.), when it lost its once Romanesque portal.

Single nave churches, like Saint-Maclou, are typical for the villages of the Saintonge. They may not look spectacular on the first sight. But here in Colombiers are some extraordenary carvings.

Most of the frieze-like capitals are similar to the carvings in Marinac. The style differs, but the "story" is the same. In an impenetrable djungle of entwining vines humans fight creatures, lurking through the foliage.

The bearded head and the lion my be "green creatures". The most interesting is the fight to the right. The standing man (in the corner) wields an axe and kills the person on the ground. The standing man has his shank partly amputated and wears a prothesis. This prothesis sticks in the mouth of the opponent. After having seen the many (megaphallic) carvings in Champagnolles, I notice, that the prothesis looks very "phallic"..