Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: hound

There has been a church here since Saxon times and the base of the tower is Saxon. On the west wall is a blocked off Saxon doorway with a later oval window at the top. The battlemented top is later and probably late 12th century. The nave is Saxon/Norman although the clerestory and side aisles were added later. The chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century. This cross was found built into the tower wall in 1911. The back of the cross we just saw. A hunter, two hounds and a stag

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 were built in the first half of the 12th century, while the nave and the western portals may be some decades younger. There are more than 200 carved capitals alone in- and outside this church, done by different carvers and studios over the long building process. While most capitals of the older/eastern part are decorated with foliage, some capitals of the nave depict "real life", like this one about the final stage of the hunt. The pack of hounds has cornered a boar. The hunter approaches the fight - and spears it.