"Notre-Dame de l'Assomption" Church

Located on the spur overlooking the city, near the old motte castrale, the church is a major landmark for the town of La Tour-du-Pin, with its imposing bell tower-porch adjoined by quarter-round turrets. This one covers an introductory space, the narthex, flanked by two chapels (of the dead, baptismal font) and surmounted by a third forming tribune. The high central nave and its aisles are interrupted by a transept in strong protrusion but extend beyond it by a deep choir of three bays, framed with chapels of transept of decreasing size towards the outside. The differences in height of the volumes, covered with glazed tile roofs, give a clear hierarchy to these symmetrical spaces, which are complemented by the sacristies attached to the bedside. Rosettes illuminate the upper parts. Placed at the ends of the transept and on the bell tower-porch, they are inscribed under a broken arch digging into niche with blind arch on the main facade. This arcature echoes the triforium surmounting the large arcades, in respect of the Gothic tradition. The careful balance of volumes and details, combined with its position as a figurehead, give the building great majesty.

Inside, the high-quality furniture is mainly the work of Lyon artists Jean-Antoine and Pierre Aubert. The church hosts the famous triptych of La Tour-du-Pin (dating from 1542 and classified as a Historic Monument), but also that of the contemporary painter Arcabas, "the Adoration of the Magi of the East ", which echoes it.

History:

A Benedictine priory, disappeared before the Revolution, is attested in La Tour since 1214. A hospital (1315), a maladrerie (1375) and even a convent of the Recollets (1620) are mentioned, all disappeared. The old church remains however known by a pastoral visit, in 1705. After the Revolution, the City of La Tour-du-Pin decided to rebuild this building already enlarged and restored several times. Hector Riondel, student and occasional collaborator of Charles Questel, departmental architect. It oscillates for some time between a neo-Romanesque project (with cupolas on pendant above the nave and transept) and a Romanesque-Gothic compromise, to finally arrive at the current project, giving rise to many observations of the Council of Civil Buildings. It is made between 1875 and 1880 for the bulk work. Its final cost will exceed 500,000 francs, which will come mainly from donations and subscriptions (other financing: municipality 119,000 francs, state 30,000, Chartreux 41,000). The sacristy was built in 1889.