Aulnay - Saint-Pierre

"Saint-Pierre d'Aulnay" is a church outside of Aulnay, in the center of an old graveyard. The setting has not changed for centuries. For the pilgrims of the 12th century this church was a major halt - and it still is for all the tourists...

A predecessing church „Saint-Pierre-de-la-Tour“ had been here, that, when the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella got more and more popular, was obviously to small, as Aulnay was conveniently situated between Poitiers and Saintes on the Via Turonensis. A new, larger church was needed, so the place was handed over to the chapter of the cathedral in Poitiers. The canons then probably planned this church, that was erected from about 1130/1140 on.

"Saint-Pierre d'Aulnay" is a gem of the "style saintongeais". For Peter Strafford ("Romanesque Churches Of France") this is "one of the best examples of late Romanesque architecture in what used to be Aquitaine".

Saint-Pierre´s "South Porch" is what attracts busloads of tourists to stop in Aulnay. And they are right.The "South Porch" is mindblowing.

There are way more than 140 different characters. Here are three of the 24 male, bearded saints, that populate one archivolt. Just as the atlasses below, they are talking to each other. Some of them hold books, instruments or bottles - and of course all of them have a nimbus. Some art historians see here the twelve Apostles preaching to twelve acolytes.

The knees above them belong to the atlasses who hold the third archivolt.