Attractions and Places To See around Souday - Top 11

This church contains 14th century wall paintings. These paintings were discovered in 1895. They formerly occupied the entire width of the western wall of the nave. The central part was destroyed following the renovation of the door. The left side represented paradise. Of the bust of Christ, in a trilobed medallion, which occupied the center, there remains only a fragment of the cruciform halo. The rest of the composition is divided into rectangular compartments, each enclosing, in the surviving part, a figure of a crowned chosen one. On the right, hell is represented by a cauldron in which several characters are immersed, including a pope, a bishop, a monk, a king, a queen. Above, a woman with her legs apart. On the right, an enormous horned demon sticks out its tongue. On the left, another carries a basket filled with the damned and is about to plunge a woman into the cauldron. Construction periods: 14th century

The parish church dedicated to Saint Anne, perhaps more anciently to the Virgin, depended on the diocese of Chartres. This former possession of Ganelon, treasurer of Saint-Martin de Tours in the 11th century, was undoubtedly part of the important donation made by his descendants Eudes and Rahier de Montigny for the benefit of the chapter of Chartres Cathedral around 1160. This Romanesque building, 35 m long, with a single nave and flat apse, reinforced with buttresses and lit by round-arched windows splayed internally and simply chamfered towards the outside, was never vaulted in stone: it is covered with 'a paneled vault. The masonry is entirely made of Grison stone, including the frames, giving an austere appearance specific to this region of Perche. We enter to the west through a semi-circular door with a double arch into the lower room of a bell tower-porch established later inside the original nave. The upper part of this bell tower was pierced with semi-circular bays. The eastern one was obstructed during the installation of the high roof of the nave and the bells were placed above in a belfry under a frame. The interior of the building was in fact covered as a whole by a paneled vault with molded beams and punches from the 16th century. In the 17th century, the entire back of the choir was decorated with a large altarpiece with columns and pilasters, paintings and sculptures, of great decorative effect. A curious set of carpentry from the same period presents above a confessional a paneled pulpit surmounted by a large sounding board. Note in the furniture a carved Gothic canopy from the beginning of the Renaissance and on the glory beam a carved wooden calvary from the same period. The 19th century. added a gallery, repainted the vault and provided the windows with stained glass.

Around 1240, the Benedictines, who had a priory within the walls of the castle of Mondoubleau, having had to abandon it, settled near Choue. Of the buildings, only the chapel remains. The western gable is pierced with a double archivolt door in third point and projecting cord, chamfered. Above, a bay was flanked by two six-lobed oculi. On the western part of the southern gutter wall, a door gave access to a small room which could have been the lower room of a square tower, perhaps a bell tower. Inside, the walls were plastered.

The robust grison pillars of the church of Chapelle-Guillaume reveal its distant roots in the beautiful country of Perche-Gouët, and even if it is often difficult to fix with precision the date of construction of a church, at least It seems obvious to her that she has been watching over the small village that surrounds her for many centuries – probably not far from ten… It owes her name to Guillaume Gouët. In any case, the last two hundred years have given it many alterations and restorations. Thus the bell tower that a hurricane had brought down was rebuilt in 1827, while the capital which adorned the entrance disappeared a few decades later, serving as a narthex, or more simply as a “caquetoire”. Everything here announces the joy of welcome and the simple peace that a place of prayer requires. The interior is distinguished by the great care taken in maintaining the warm furnishings: painted vault, gallery, benches, paneling, statues and choir woodwork. The altarpiece is illustrated by a pretty painting of the Annunciation. A great harmony emerges from the whole and invites prayer. There was also not far from there near the church a Notre-Dame priory dependent on Marmoutier, where Saint Martin resided.

The castle of Montmirail is a striking example of the castles of the region. The good news is that you can stay there if you wish, as the castle is now open to the public as a hotel. Make it a weekend run or just appreciate its beauty as you pass by.

with water point and wc nearby! by bike it's always practical!