Melle - Saint-Hilaire

Melle was known already during Roman times, when silver and lead were mined here. The silver mines were exploited over hundreds of years, got forgotten and "rediscovered" in the 19th century. Today they are a tourist attraction. Melle was wealthy and the pilgrims, walking the Via Turonensis, passed through Melle on their way to Santiago, what brought even more money into town.

Churches were erected during the heydays of the pilgrimage- and three (!) Romanesque churches can still be found here.

Saint-Hilaire de Melle was the church of a priory, a dependency of the important Benedictian abbey in Saint-Jean-d’Angély. It was built on the bank of the Beronne river. The eastern part (apse, the radiating chapels and transept) were built in the first half of the 12th century, while the nave and the western portals may be some decades younger.

All around the eastern part of St. Hilaire, with the ambulatory and the radiating chapels, are many perfect corbels. These carvings may date from the renovations and reconstructions undertaken during the 19th century.