Attractions and Places To See around Melleray - Top 16

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 parish church dedicated to Saint Anne, perhaps more anciently to the Virgin, depended on the diocese of Chartres. This former possession of Ganelon, treasurer of Saint-Martin de Tours in the 11th century, was undoubtedly part of the important donation made by his descendants Eudes and Rahier de Montigny for the benefit of the chapter of Chartres Cathedral around 1160. This Romanesque building, 35 m long, with a single nave and flat apse, reinforced with buttresses and lit by round-arched windows splayed internally and simply chamfered towards the outside, was never vaulted in stone: it is covered with 'a paneled vault. The masonry is entirely made of Grison stone, including the frames, giving an austere appearance specific to this region of Perche. We enter to the west through a semi-circular door with a double arch into the lower room of a bell tower-porch established later inside the original nave. The upper part of this bell tower was pierced with semi-circular bays. The eastern one was obstructed during the installation of the high roof of the nave and the bells were placed above in a belfry under a frame. The interior of the building was in fact covered as a whole by a paneled vault with molded beams and punches from the 16th century. In the 17th century, the entire back of the choir was decorated with a large altarpiece with columns and pilasters, paintings and sculptures, of great decorative effect. A curious set of carpentry from the same period presents above a confessional a paneled pulpit surmounted by a large sounding board. Note in the furniture a carved Gothic canopy from the beginning of the Renaissance and on the glory beam a carved wooden calvary from the same period. The 19th century. added a gallery, repainted the vault and provided the windows with stained glass.

This 13th, 15th and 16th century church does not have a transept. It has a central shingled nave with aisles. The choir ends with a polygonal apse. The apse is decorated with glass roofs dating from 1541 representing various scenes from the Passion. These 16th century stained glass windows (bays 1 to 4) have been partially classified as historic monuments since 1908. Bays 1 and 2 were restored in the 17th century thanks to the Bourbon-Conti family, lords of Bazoche-Gouet from 1676 in 1719, the 4 in the 19th century, then in 1974, by Michel Petit, master glassmaker whose workshop is located in Thivars in Eure-et-Loir. Outside the choir, the stained glass windows are from the 19th century, made by two renowned master glassmakers, the Lorin workshops in Chartres and the Carmel stained glass factory in Le Mans, the first in a neo-Romanesque style, the second approaching the neo-Romanesque style. Gothic.

The robust grison pillars of the church of Chapelle-Guillaume reveal its distant roots in the beautiful country of Perche-Gouët, and even if it is often difficult to fix with precision the date of construction of a church, at least It seems obvious to her that she has been watching over the small village that surrounds her for many centuries – probably not far from ten… It owes her name to Guillaume Gouët. In any case, the last two hundred years have given it many alterations and restorations. Thus the bell tower that a hurricane had brought down was rebuilt in 1827, while the capital which adorned the entrance disappeared a few decades later, serving as a narthex, or more simply as a “caquetoire”. Everything here announces the joy of welcome and the simple peace that a place of prayer requires. The interior is distinguished by the great care taken in maintaining the warm furnishings: painted vault, gallery, benches, paneling, statues and choir woodwork. The altarpiece is illustrated by a pretty painting of the Annunciation. A great harmony emerges from the whole and invites prayer. There was also not far from there near the church a Notre-Dame priory dependent on Marmoutier, where Saint Martin resided.

The castle of Montmirail is a striking example of the castles of the region. The good news is that you can stay there if you wish, as the castle is now open to the public as a hotel. Make it a weekend run or just appreciate its beauty as you pass by.

with water point and wc nearby! by bike it's always practical!