Bollène - Collégiale Saint-Martin

A priory, depending from the well established Benedictine abbey on the Île Barbe (Lyon), existed on this hill overlooking the valley of the Rhone probably since the 10th century. The church of that priory got consecrated around 1115 by Hugues de Bourgogne, then archbishop of Vienne, later Pope Callixtus II. The priory existed upto 1427, when it "morphed" into a collégiale.

In 1562 Protestant troops led by François de Beaumont, a commander
notorious for his cruelty, took Bollène. They threw the the canons from the tower and set fire to the church.

The church got rebuilt. The collégiale recovered and existed upto the French Revolution. Many chapels have been added to the structure over the century - and it would have been interesting to have a look inside the church, but - it was locked.