CHURCH OF BAPTRESSE

The picturesque church of Baptresse is located slightly off the commune of Château-Larcher. Dating from the Carolingian period, its existence is mentioned in a manuscript dated 923. The church would have succeeded to a Gallo-Roman temple as attested by the discovery in front of its facade of an altar in honor of four Roman gods, found in 1835 and since deposited in the museum of Poitiers. A hosannière cross, a funerary aedicule, is the last vestige of the primitive cemetery which must have extended all around the place of worship.