12 The Collégiale Saint Ours

The Collegiate Church (Collégiale) of Notre-Dame du Château
was built around 965 by the Count of Anjou Geoffroy
Grisegonelle, father of Foulques Nerra. It had a chapter of
twelve canons, and was built to house a relic said to be the
girdle of the Virgin Mary. During the Revolution it became the
parish church of Saint Ours, taking the name and status of a
former destroyed church located below. The building as we see
it today is the work of the prior Thomas Pactius in the 12th
century and is a fine example of Romanesque architecture. A
notable feature is the polychrome doorway sculpted with
figures and fantastic animals from the bestiary of the Middle
Ages. The two hollow octagonal pyramids over the nave, called
"dubes", were added around 1165; this arrangement is unique in
France. They doubtless contributed to Viollet-le-Duc's comment
that the church had a "strange and wild beauty". Since April
2nd 2005, Agnès Sorel's grave has been replaced inside the
church.