Sciecq - Niort Marais Poitevin Tourism

Five kilometers from Niort, facing Mursay (Chipped), sitting at the end of a promontory about twenty meters high, the village, located on the right bank of a vast loop of the Sèvre, is enclosed by two arms of the river. Moreover, its Latin name, Scissoe aquae, is to be related to the existence of four ancient Gallo-Roman fords including one in the axis of Mursay Castle. In this natural enclosure, its landscape is the meeting in miniature for the plain, Swamp and bocage. Saziacum is first mentioned in 989 on the subject of a reconciliation between the Duke of Aquitaine William IV known as Fier à Bras and his wife Emma, daughter of the Count of Blois. In order to demonstrate his good faith, he returned his property and gave him fifteen parishes (Coulon, etc.) and six estates including Sciecq. Grouped around its church, the original village is made up of the Lower House, the Upper House, the Chivalry and the Post Office. The localities the Lower House et the Upper House recall the existence of local court. Originally, two large apartments with several mullioned windows and huge fireplaces certainly formed the stately home. In the 12th century, theAnnex by Templar commandery is founded in Chivalry which was transmitted to the Hospitallers in 1312, then to the Benedictines of Maillezais. After the Revolution, it belonged to the Charpentier de Laurière, a family from the Viscounty of Aulnay who sold it to the Delaroy-Delorme. It is sold in pieces to the inhabitants of the country. Post Office, which has no connection with a postal route, is the name of a group of houses surrounding a courtyard closed by a large arched gate (faded away). In 1737, the parish depended on theelection of Fontenay, then of that de Niort in 1788. . The lordship, made of four large farms, East purchased 110.100 books in 1791. View the brother-in-law of the priest, Jean-Baptiste Martin-Monteuil du Petit-Prissé de Beauvoir-s.-Niort, considered theone of the richest owners in the department. The domain is sold by plots to residents in 1883.

What to see in Sciecq?

01. The Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine

THEearly church depends onbishopric of Poitiers, deanery of Saint-André and archpriest of Notre-Dame de Niort. In 1317, the too big diocese of Poitiers is divided into three : Poitiers, Maillezais and Luçon. The first bishop of Maillezais is Godfrey of Pouvrelle, perhaps from the Pouvreaus of the seigneurial family of Sciecq. William of Sambuti covets them parishes of Sciecq and Sainte-Pezenne (resting place of the abbots of Maillezais) which have not been attributed to him. After investigation, the dispute is resolved by a bubble of the Pope John XXII stating that both churches fall under the diocese of Poitiers. The first building was (re)built in the middle of the 12th century. The choir and the apse are today the only oldest parts. In the 15th century, the western portal is rebuilt and accompanied bya ballet (traces visible on the facade). During the Wars of Religion, the bell tower and the vault of the nave were burned by the Huguenots (traces of fire on the exterior facings and the charred stones of the north wall indicating an adjoining building destroyed by fire). In 1678, parishioners Mathurin X and Marie Foueschon donate part of their property to renovate the church. After the Revolution, the parish is attached to that of Sainte-Pezenne. The monument, sold for 4.000 pounds in 1798, was converted into fodder store et stable for the horses of the Vendée army. Returned in 1811, but devastated, many ceremonies are then held in Sainte-Pezenne. The commune voted in 1837 the sum of 100 francs in order to réparer. The royal decree of June 23, 1842 reestablishes Sciecq in parish. Of work is undertaken : paving of the sanctuary, repair of the baptismal font, repair of the plaster ceiling of the west part of the church, donation of a pulpit by an anonymous benefactor, construction of benches and erection of a station of the cross. THE sanctuary paintings are carried out under the priesthood ofEugene Bonnin (1867-78). The bell tower is rebuilt in 1870 by the architect Briand replacing a square Romanesque tower. The ceiling was rebuilt in 1932. A statue of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus was offered in 1937 by the village to the father Alphée Suire to celebrate his 60 years of priesthood (see commemorative plaque). The church is made up ofa single nave with a ceiling of 25 m. long, without transept, with vaulted apse and painted with a starry celestial vault. The capitals of the second bay supporting the bell tower are decorated with an ox's head held by the horns by two monsters, of a centaur hunting by shooting his arrows, of a mermaid (The Mellusine) braiding her hair and accosted by a wild boar… To the right of the walled south door, a sculpted shell reminds us that the building is placed on one of the secondary roads of Jacquaire by Two Sevres.

02. The two wash houses

The wash house built at the foot of the village, along a broad bend of the river, is subject to variations in water level, so that it is equipped with winches allowing you to raise or lower a wooden apron placed on a rail on which the washerwoman was installed. It is covered with a tile roof and is closed on the west side for protect yourself from wind and rain. During the winter, the women preferred another unsheltered washhouse, installed at 30 m. on the path up the hill, on a source at a constant temperature of 11°c.