Le Vieux Clocher Church
Saint-Palais-sur-Mer’s old church was mentioned for the first time in the 11th century, when it was donated to the abbey of Vaux-sur-Mer. At the time, it served as a priory. The oldest parts are the apse and the base of the bell tower (clocher) after which the church was named, both of which date back to the 11th century and were built in the Romanesque style. During the Wars of Religion (1562-1598), the nave was destroyed, as were the arms of the transept.
The octagonal bell tower, which was heightened in the 17th and 18th centuries, was a daymark for boats sailing on the Gironde Estuary. In 1768, after being partially annihilated by lightning, it was swiftly rebuilt at the request of the Gironde’s harbour pilots, and was even reinforced by buttresses.
The church was closed to worshippers in 1793 and only reopened after a petition was signed by the residents of Saint-Palais-sur-Mer in 1853.
With the development of the seaside resort, the growing number of new residents and visitors led to the construction of a new edifice, just a few metres away from the old one.
Saint-Palais-sur-Mer’s old church was then shut down, although it underwent restoration work in the 1990s, following its designation as a Historic Monument on 11 July 1973.
Since 2002, the bell tower has been used as a contemporary art centre, hosting exhibitions (painting, sculpture, etc.) each summer.
Le Vieux Clocher Cemetery
The origins of Le Vieux Clocher Cemetery probably date back to the Middle Ages, given its location surrounding the church. Although intended for the Catholic community of Saint-Palais, it also served as a burial place for the bodies of sailors who drifted onto the coast. It was only in the mid-19th century that it really grew, thanks to the seaside resort. It houses, in an astonishing jumble, the graves of both the families of craftsmen and merchants newly arrived in town, as well as summer residents.
By the entrance to the cemetery, there is a tomb inhabited by “two friends”, Emma Ferrand née de Beaujouan and Ernestine Chabouillé de Saint-Phal née Lebeau, a writer and a musician, respectively. When they moved to Bernezac in the summer of 1833, they started the practice of sea bathing in Nauzan Cove. You can also see the funeral chapel of the family of Georges Coindreau, the man who built Les Sapins, the first villa in Le Bureau, in 1861, along with the tombs of many other families of summer residents. The one where Achille Richard (a cognac trader) is interred is particularly striking. A plaque honours the memory of his son Emile who was lost at sea on his way to Canada aboard the Titanic on 10 April 1912.
In terms of craftsmen and merchants, the cemetery contains many final resting places of property developers and builders. The imposing chapel belonging to the family of Henry Neaud, who has a street named after him, reminds us that his widow sold off many plots of land that were quickly occupied in this fishing district near the town centre. The tomb of Simon Paquet, a builder from Bordeaux who died in 1909, recalls the man who bought the Bois du Roy (King’s Wood) in 1898. He would parcel it out in the following years, whilst building the commanding Bon Accueil villa. Shortly before that, in the mid-1890s, he had built a dozen or so villas along the beach, on Avenue Trez-la-Chasse and at the top of Rue de la Conche. Right nearby are the burial places of the resort’s “leaders”: the Nicolles of the local baths, the Gillets of Hôtel de la Paix, the Ribeyrols of the restaurant Chez Bob, the Moutonnet-Marcous, photographers who captured nearly a century of change, and the Cheyrous, the family of the head of the local tourism marketing agency. Not to mention the grave of Théodore Théas, a doctor and the town’s mayor during the Occupation.
You will also find multiple Protestant graves there, identifiable by the presence of Huguenot crosses. Because they were barred from the consecrated ground around the church, Protestants – the town’s biggest religious community in the late 18th century – buried their dead in small family cemeteries on their own properties and then later at Courlay Cemetery.
New church
The new church was built with the aim of replacing Le Vieux Clocher Church, which had become too small to accommodate all of the faithful, whose numbers were growing thanks to the development of the seaside resort.
In 1906, the parish of Saint-Palais-sur-Mer finally gained its independence from the parish of Vaux-sur-Mer. At that time, it had its own permanent, local parish priest in the person of Léon Gerbier. In 1908, he and a group of parishioners created a not-for-profit association whose mission it was to build the new church. The work began in 1909, heavily based on the plans drawn in the Romanesque Revival style by architect Georges Naud. Many of the craftsmen involved in the project were locals from Saint-Palais. The church opened its doors in 1911, before the start of the season.
In 1995, the municipality purchased the association’s assets (church, presbytery and annexes) for the symbolic price of 1 franc.