The Church of St Ours stands in a commanding position on a long rocky spur that juts out in the direction of the river Indre. It is in the heart of the fortress of Loches, once a stronghold of great importance, which, after being fought over by Philip Augustus and Richard Cœur de Lion (the Lionheart), came into the hands of the kings of France by a deed of purchase signed by St Louis In 1249 at Damietta in Egypt.

1 - CHURCH HISTORY - There have been several places of Christian worship In the shelter of the fortress:

-- In the 5th century St Eustoche built an oratory dedlcated to St Mary Magdalene.
-- In the 6th century St Ours founded a monastery in a nearby recess of the hillside, as Gregory of Tours relates In his writings.
-- Between 978 and 985 Geoffrey 1. 'Grisegonelle' (Grey Tunic), Count of Anjou, the father of Fulk Nerra, built the collegiate church of Our Lady. There Is probably no vestige of this building left standing today.

2 - ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY - Four distinct stages of building operations stretching from the 11th to the 15th centuries are clearly visible. In spite of the uncouth 19th-century restorations, which, however, were badly needed.

-- From the 11th century date the square base of the west porch tower, the lower parts of the nave walls and parts of the north wall of the transept.
-- Towards the middle of the 12th century the following were completed: the chavet, the transept, the crossing tower and the octagonal storey of the porch tower with the octagonal spire crowning it.
-- During the second half of the 12th century the nave was vaulted over and a little later the remarkable square porch that forms the present entrance to the church was built.
The original Romanesque church was aisleless. The south aisle was built towards the end of the 12th century and the north aisle in the 15th. However, the archways between the nave and the side aisles were opened only in the 19th century during the restorations. Before that time the nave communicated with the north and south transepts by two narrow passages, still existing, at each side of the crossing, which are called Berrichon passages because they are more often to be found in Berry than elsewhere.
-- After the French Revolution and at the beginning of the 19th century, the chapter of the Collegiate Church of Our Lady was dissolved and the church was named St Ours.

THE TOUR OF THE BUILDING

The Porch:
-- The doorway is majestic in its simplicity. The imposing effect stems from its setting in the austere frame of the facade without any embellishment around it and with only a little plain window above it.

The spacious interior is rib-vaulted and has two windows and two side doors. The following should be noticed:

1) In the rlght-hand corner, a Gallo-Roman relic adorned with attractive carved panels; the top has been hollowed out to make a holy-water stoup.
2) On the ribs of the vault and on the capitals in the corners animals and monsters, geometrical patterns, leaves, palms, a horseman with a falcon, two birds drinking from the same vessel...

-- The splendid portal stands in front. It was badly defaced In the Revolution; nevertheless its striking beauty, enhanced by traces of polychromy, remains apparent. From a little distance away it is possible to perceive the harmony and balance of the whole composition, which is bounded at the top by a pointed arch and at the bottom by a round-headed arch with three orders or rings of mouldings. There is nothing left of the lowest order of mouldings. The second and third are decorated with birds, monkeys, hares, bears, mythological monsters, minstrels and acrobats; in short, the traditional Mirror of Nature and of medieval life. It is aslo the symbolical figuration of the biblical quality putting light against darkness, good against evil.

There is a slender statue on each side of the round arch on the right, St Peter holding the keys, and on the left, an archbishop wearing the pallium. A little higher, two pairs of columnar statues. one pair on each side, are no longer identifiable; they are perhaps an Annunciation and a Visitation, which would not be untraditional.

At the top, set on a horizontal moulding and inside a mock tympanum is the principal element of the composition. In the centre, the Blessed Virgin Mary, full face, seated majestically on a kind of tribune, is holding the Child Jesus in her lap and presenting him to us. The folds of her dress, still distinctly visible, fall with a gracefulness that is heightened by the cross sweep of the embroidered edge of her mantle. On the left, the Magi are bringing their gifts. On the right is someone who can only be St Joseph. Further to the right, the naive and touching scene of the Magi asleep all three quietly settled in the same bed, the counterpane of which is in an almost perfect state of preservation. Just above we can make out the angel waking them with his finger and warning them not to return home the same way if they are to escape the cruel King Herod. The mediaeval artists and the theologians who guided their hands intended the portal to be an expression of feellngs of benevolence and evangelical love and, despite the irreparable damage done to it, it still transmits those sentiments to many today, filling the porch with a sense of peace and inviting many to enter the holy place with confidence

The Porch Tower

The porch opens into the tower.

-- The lower storey is a vestibule. It has a barrel vault with flat transverse ribs set very close together. The decoration of the capitals though rather crude is not without charm, as, for example, a hunting scene with two mastiffs at grips with a smaller animal.
-- The upper storey, originally quite closed, was opened up on the side giving on to the nave when the nave was vaulted. It is a spacious gallery covered with a vault that has stout ribs intersecting at right angles. The octagonal storey above, which is crowned with a spire, was added a century later. The present spire is modern.

The Nave

The nave is composed of two square bays. In the Romanesque period it had a wooden roof but about 1165 it was vaulted over by Thomas Pactius, or Thomas of Loches, the prior then in charge of the Collegiate Church. The walls were altered and strengthened to support seven great pointed arches. The arches, four of which are set into the walls, spring from six responds. Flat pendentives at the intersection of the arches carry the octagonal hollow pyramids that cover the two bays. This type of vault, highly original and very rare, is called a 'dube'. Although they have been much criticized from time to time the 'dubes' now form an integral part of the landscape of Loches and, moreover, stress the loftiness of the whole structure of the church. According to several 17th-century writers they were, originally conical, at least outside, which explains why the Abbé de Baraudin, Alfred de Vigny's great-uncle, compared them to sugar-loaves.

The Crossing and the Sanctuary

The crossing is vaulted with an octagonal cupola carried by squinches resting on four great roundheaded arches, which spring from responds with attached shafts. The corbels on which some of the shafts rest have representations of stooping people with humble but radiant faces.
The sanctuary consists of one barrel-vaulted bay and a semicircular apse. The two side chapels are similar.

The Crypt

Under the south apsidal chapel there is a crypt reached by a modern staircase. It has a barrel vault and a round 15th-century window. The magnificent 12th century fresco representing St Brice, successor of St Martin, has been removed from its crypt and put in the chapell opposite the sacristy.

A message

The Church of St Ours is something more than a mere historical monument: for many visitors it carries a message, which anyone who cares to may discover. We must consider the exterior from the rue Thomas-Pactius or the presbytery garden close by, or farther away from the eastern ramparts. The church is an expression of its builders' religious vision: their ecstasy transformed into stone. It gives us a share in the great adventure of the life of faith led on this hill of Loches for more than a thousand years.

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