Oiron - Saint-Maurice

Charles VII of France known in French as "le Bien-Servi", what is "the Well-Served", must have been indeed well served, as in 1449 he gave the village and the forest of Oiron to Guillaume Gouffier, who was his "valet de chambre".

From then on the Gouffier family played an interesting role in the following centuries. Guillaume Gouffier had a château built here, but it was his son Artus, a "grand maître de France", diplomat for Francis I, who, impressed by the Italian Renaissance, updated it to the "new style". His wife Helene de Hengest was responsible for the construction of the collegiate church Saint-Maurice.

The large collegiate church served as the burial place for the Gouffier family. This is the tomb of Artus Gouffier, According to Wikipedia he was "Duke of Roannez and pair de France, count of Étampes, count of Caravaggio, baron of Passavant, of Maulévrier, of Roanne, of la Mothe-Saint-Romain, of Bourg-Charente and of Saint-Loup, Lord of Oiron, of Villedieu-sur-Indre, of Valence and of Cazamajor." Very impressive!

His tomb got vandalized during the French Revolution. While the heads of the small mourning persons got chipped off, the large, white marble effigy is comparably intact.

In the background are the choir stalls, where the monks had to pray for the salvation of their noble patrons.

The motto of the Gouffier family, carved into the facade of the church, was "Hic Terminus Haeret" (here is the end), what fits perfectly to a burial place.