The best road cycling routes around Dampierre-Sous-Brou

Superb castle in the Perche!

Built on an old feudal motte, which is still visible and was completely destroyed during the Hundred Years' War, it was replaced in the second half of the 15th century by the castle, the remains of which can still be seen today. The Saint-François Tower remains as it was, with its Grisons base and rows of white stone. Halfway up the circle is the Cord of Saint Francis of Assisi, with its coils and knots. A Renaissance building was added in the 16th century, and new buildings were constructed in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Saint-Lubin church, built on a sloping site, is a vast building with juxtaposed constructions, bearing witness to renovations and additions up to the 19th century, the oldest distinguished by the presence of grison, the most recent by limestone and flint. The sanctuary was ceded in 1077 by the monks of Saint-Denis de Nogent-le-Rotrou to the monks of the Saint-Père de Chartres abbey. Built in the 11th-12th century, the nave extended by a semi-circular apse is the oldest part of the church, in Romanesque style. In the thickness of the north walls of the nave are still visible the grison bonds which bear witness to the original openings. The building was considerably enlarged in the 15th and 16th centuries by the construction of a large transept, formed of two chapels, and a south aisle forming an alignment of gables attached to the slopes decorated with leafy motifs and finished with chimeras. The construction of the north aisle, just begun, was not finished. On the outside, on the west wall of the chapel, we can see the beginning of a first bay (stone arch and walls removed that remained unfinished). On the gable of the north transept, the walled door can be seen from the pointed arch and the ornate pinnacles, characteristic of the end of the 15th century. In the center, two animals present a coat of arms. On each side of the door, niches with canopies once housed statues. Above, we can still see a coat of arms presented by two bearded figures and probably surmounted by God the Father. According to local tradition, all or part of the extensions were due to the generosity of Florimont Robertet, who owned the barony of Brou from 1509 until his death in 1527, and it was because of this that the work was interrupted. Occupied by the revolutionaries, the building became a ten-day temple in 1794; it was finally returned to worship in 1802. Burnt down by lightning in 1813, the upper part of the bell tower, which was a slender spire, was replaced by the construction of a square limestone tower pierced with louvers. On the southern part of the bell tower, a turret provides access to the bells. In the southern part of the nave, a door, now blocked and highlighted by a basket-handle arch topped with a pinnacle, provided access to the cemetery that once surrounded the church. The building can boast of having preserved very uniform oak furniture, most of which was made in the second half of the 18th century.

Unfortunately, the church was not accessible when I visited (mid-September 2024). You could only look in through a gate and the dance of death depictions on the left side were not really visible. In front of them were transparencies with skeleton drawings. Maybe those were the depictions...

Porte de Boisville Its ogival portal opens into a thick quadrangular massif where there was a room for operating the portcullis. We can still see the groove in the thickness of the walls. On the left and right two small funnel-shaped spaces allowed the defenders to observe and repel the enemies who appeared on the bridge. The gate was topped by a building serving as a guardhouse which was demolished in 1761. The guarding of these doors and their keys was in the troubled times of the Hundred Years' War the subject of concern for the inhabitants and also a source of quarrels and trials between the city and the abbey. This gate is preceded by a bridge of 5 stone arches, the one adjoining the gate was built in 1774 and replaced a drawbridge which defended the entrance.

Of course there is the castle but the rest of the village is really worth a stop (church, wash house, half-timbered house, etc.)

the Saint-André church dates from the 11th century; it was a priory then dependent on the abbey of St.-Calais, but the current building was completely rebuilt around the walls and framework of the old building. The project was carried out in 1877. The construction of a transept, enlarged windows and a stone bell tower completely modified the old monument. The environment has also changed a lot. All traces of the old cemetery, transferred outside the village at the beginning of the 18th century, have disappeared. The furniture includes a stone baptistery, a statue of the Virgin and Child, a confessional and a Louis XV period bench. The beautiful wooden tabernacle decorated with a statue of Saint Lubin comes from the church which was located a few kilometers away, in Saint-Lubin-des-Cinq-Fonts, and of which only the choir, which has become a chapel, remains today. .

The Saint-Martin church of La Croix-du-Perche, composed of a single nave without aisles, dates from the 12th century. At this date, the church is the chapel of a priory founded around 1250 by the Abbey of the Holy Trinity of Tiron. The church only became a parish when the monks left, towards the end of the 16th century. The monument is remarkable for its 16th century framework, entirely decorated with paintings dated 1537. The building was classified as a historic monument in 1934.