Benet - Sainte-Eulalie

A Benedictian piory existed here since the 11th century. A large church for the convent was erected from the 12th century on. Of this church only the western facade survived. Though weathered and vandalized the facade still has many elements of the Romanesque church. When the church got rebuilt, after the naves had collapsed, in the 15th century large buttresses were needed, to stabilize the structure.

During the French Revolution served as a Temple of Reason and was later used as a saltpeter factory, what means explosive gunpowder (sulfur + charcoal + saltpeter was produced here.

Benet is a small town, west of Niort, in the Vendée, the deprtament where in 1793 the "War in the Vendée", an uprise against the young republic, was fought. The counterrevolutionary rebellion ended, when tens of thousands of civilians were massacred by the Republican army.

A closer look onto Sainte-Eulalie´s facade.

Only the shape of the horseman can be seen. Such an equestrian statue, depicting "a king" was of course a "feast" for furious revolutionaries. So they did not leave much. It is widely believed, that such statues depict Constantin the Great. Over all they are pretty rare, but in Western France are quite a few..