Southern Burgundy Romanesque ChurchesLaizé Romanesque Church

The village of Laizé is located on the side of a hill not far from Mâcon in Southern Burgundy. It’s village church - Saint Antoine is Romanesque and with a unique bell tower. Many Romanesque churches in the region have bell towers that rise high above the church roof with multiple levels of windows. Not with Laizé. The stone section of the bell tower rises above the roof, just high enough for windows to be built on all four sides. Above the windows a wood tower rises, with a steeply sloped roof. This tower is exceptional and leads one to think it was build not during the original construction but at some later date perhaps for defensive purposes.

The bell tower is also distinctive in that it partly sits on the apse, partly on the roof. This means that the south side is much shorter than the west. The longer west side has a series of Lombard Bands not usually found on Romanesque village churches.

Of the original church only the bell tower and apse are from the 11th century, other parts of the church, notably the nave have been remodeled many times over the centuries.

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