Collégiale Saint-Martin

The collegiate church of Saint Martin is the largest building in the religious centre of La Brigue. The present building is said to be built on the foundations of a first building from the 13th century. The side portal is thought to belong to this first building; this portal preserves the oldest lintel in the Nisso-Liguria region, dated 1234. The collegiate church is distinguished from the cathedral by the presence of canons, a community created and financially founded by a lord.
Today it still stands in the eponymous square, recognisable from the entrance to the village by its slender Lombard bell tower. According to traditional history, Saint Martin of Tours preached here... He is depicted above the main gate, sharing his cloak with a poor man. Note the lintel, stamped with an IHS and the arms of Savoy. This huge building from the beginning of the 16th century bears witness to the importance of religion in the way of life of the past, but also to the means that the brigasques could use for this type of construction. The interior of the collegiate church is also decorated with altarpieces. Amongst others, the Martyrdom of Saint Elmo and the most famous, the Nativity, the only representation made by Louis Bréa, a painter from the Ecole des Primitifs Niçois, created some twenty years after the frescoes of Notre Dame des Fontaines...
This church, originally of Lombard Romanesque type, was "baroque" during the 17th and 18th centuries. See the vault of the choir decorated with a glory of the Blessed Sacrament, the high altar and its woodwork, the altarpieces of the Virgin and the altar of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. Also not to be missed are the Chapel of the Assumption (baroque exterior) and the Chapel of the Annunciation, whose original architecture lies in its curved facade and in its plan which combines the rectangle and the ellipse, a design often adopted by the baroque churches of Liguria. The church contains an original altarpiece with an unusual subject: the altarpiece of the Adoration of the Child or Nativity by Louis Bréa (1510). The scene is striking for its simplicity and the symbolic simplicity of its composition. Opposite each other, the Virgin and Joseph are kneeling before the beautiful naked Child lying on a piece of his mother's cloak. The Child is at the apex of the inverted triangle on whose sides are Mary and Joseph, for God is no longer up in heaven but on earth. Through the window opening, the Announcement to the shepherds is visible. The angel, messenger of "great joy", is on the vertical axis of the altarpiece, where the Child is obviously located.
The collegiate church was classified as a historical monument in 1949. Lingardi organ classified as a historical monument in 1971.

Church open every day of the year during the day.

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