Rioux - Notre-Dame de l’Assomption

Not much is known about the history of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, an outstanding example of the specific "style saintongeais".

As the structure is so masterly built and has such sophisticated carvings, it is believed, that this was a priory church, when it was built mid of the 12th century.

The apse of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption has an enormous richness on Romanesque carvings and a very interesting variety of claddings. Somehow this looks like a kind of 3-dimensional sample-book for prospective clients of the master builders. It can´t be that way actually, as in Rétaud, only 6kms north, is a church, that looks like a twin of this structure. Two "sample-books" in such a short distance?