page_title: Arvert
section_title: Sites and Monuments
hierarchical_section_title: Arvert / Culture and heritage / Sites and Monuments
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Moulin de Cabouci à Arvert
context_page_description: Arvert is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department and Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.
  The inhabitants of the commune are known as Alvertons or Alvertonnes.
context_section_description: Church of Saint-Étienne
  Saint-Étienne church has very old foundations and suffered greatly during the French Wars of Religion. In 1568 the old Romanesque church was attacked by the Huguenots which almost completely destroyed it - as was the church of Saint-Symphorien de Dirée (which was never rebuilt).
  The facade retains some architectural elements dating from the 12th century: two beams of seven columns surmounted by capitals and some corbels. All testify to the fantasy and humour deployed by medieval workmen. One of the capitals shows a character vomiting a snake that turns on him and bites his cheek; another shows a man's head, who appears to be a pirate or a Viking looking towards the old Gulf of Arvert.
  The present church dates from 1683 (the date is on one of the buttresses in the choir), making it the oldest in the Canton of La Tremblade. It owes its reconstruction to Father Jean de Lafargue, parish priest from 1672 to 1717. Changes were made to the building in the 19th century: primarily the construction of the bell tower (1845) - a solid stone tower with a slate spire, the increase in the height of the walls, the addition of small chapels (false transept), and an enlargement of the choir (1890). The church, which is very plain, consists of a large nave covered with a plastered vault lowered and lit by a series of bays which are sometimes ogival and sometimes semicircular where stained glass windows were placed in the taste of the 19th century. In the choir, two windows represent Saint Stephen and Saint Paul. A stone pulpit is placed near the north chapel. The bell tower features a set of three bells: "Marie-Émilie" (A flat, 450 kg), "Frances, Stephanie, Josephus, Jeanne" (B flat, 310 kg) and "Mary, Martha, Leon, Eustelle" (D, 230 kg). The front of the church has a domed well from the 18th century.
  Protestant church
  The Reformation was implanted early in the Arvert peninsula which was open to the sea and consequently to the region and new ideas from maritime hawkers and traders from northern European countries. The Protestant population was large enough for a first church to be built in 1566 along the path connecting Arvert to Les Mathes. It became too small, too outdated, or perhaps simply not corresponding to the needs of worship, it was replaced by a new building in 1609. At times threatened with destruction, it maintained its function by an order of 28 February 1664.
  The pressure on the Protestant community become more intense. Pressed to give up their "mistakes", the Protestants were denied their place of worship by an edict of the Conseil du Roi (King's council) on 2 March 1682. The building was completely destroyed including the foundations. The materials used to restore the Church of Saint-Étienne. Worship was thereafter celebrated in private houses or in the open air, which was specifically prohibited by an edict of King Louis XIV dated 23 March 1683.
  In 1685 the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes, for more than a century forced Protestants in the region to a semi-clandestine existence and sometimes into exile. In 1755 a prayer house was built in Avallon. It was not until 1834 that the commune acquired a large property, purchased from the heirs of Martin Descombes: while the commune sold the gardens at auction, the Protestant consistory bought materials to build the new church from the year 1836. It was restored several times - in 1885, 1897, and 1902 (purchase of new furniture) and was subject to a true "makeover" in 1903 (restoration of the roof of the structure, the frames, etc.) and in 2000. Very plain from an architectural perspective, it forms a simple rectangular room lit by arched windows.
  Avallon House of prayer
  In the second half of the 18th century and under the influence of Enlightenment ideas and thanks to the tenacity of pastors such as Louis Gibert, a series of prayer houses (churches fitted in barns and private houses) were built around Royan. Persecution against the Protestants, always a reality, dropped in intensity thanks to the protection of the Marquis de Sénec
caption: The Cabouci Mill
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