page_title: Meyrueis
section_title: St. Peter's Church
hierarchical_section_title: Meyrueis / Sites and monuments / St. Peter's Church
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Rotonde et eglise de Meyrueis
context_page_description: Meyrueis is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.
context_section_description: The Church of St. Peter was built in 1663 by the Jesuit order at the request of Cohon, bishop of Nîmes, which sought to restore the Catholic faith in Meyrueis. It is built on the site of another Roman church, destroyed during the religious wars of the 16th century. Some of the stones of the old castle destroyed in 1632 were used in its construction. This sanctuary is typical of churches of the Catholic Counter-Reformation: vast nave propitious to preaching, side chapels (Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Joseph) directly overlooking the nave (and the faithful), choir raised and as wide as the nave so as to be seen from every corner of the church and to ensure the solemnity of the ceremonies. Saint-Pierre was enlarged in 1857 by adding a pentagonal apse of vast proportions, two additional side chapels (chapels Saint-Roch and Our Lady of Good Help) and a forum. Outside, the facade has for any decor a large portal with pilasters supporting a curved tympanum, surmounted by a simple oculus. A triangular pediment crowns the whole, giving the façade a typical austere beauty of the Jesuits. A high bell tower, decked in 1848 by a disproportionate pyramidal slate spire replacing a roof terrace with a balustrade, is attached to the south of the building. It serves as a transition from the adjacent old priory to the sanctuary.
caption: View of St Peter's church and Protestant temple from the Rock
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