Beauvoir-sur-Niort : entre plaine et forêt

Between village and forest, enjoy this walk to recharge your batteries!

Located on the highest point of the commune (90 m. high) and on the edge of the forest of Chizé, it is the only working windmill-tower in the south-deux-sévrien. This old banal mill, depending on the seigneury of Raimbault until the Revolution, was registered in 1975 in the inventory of sites and its safeguarding association received the prize "Chef-d'œuvre en péril" for having proceeded to its restoration. Today, the site is revived during events and is also rented for festivities.

It is a state forest, whose area extends over about 3 hectares. It is a conservatory forest thanks to the National Forestry Office. It is home to many species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects.

It is dedicated to Saint-Eutrope, the first bishop of Saintes martyred in the 4th century. In the first half of the XIIth century, its bell-tower does not exist anymore or was never realized, being reduced today to an unfinished building. Victim of the Wars of Religion, two thirds of the church was destroyed, then repaired in 1744. A total repair of the nave is undertaken in 1877 thanks to the priest, the abbot Léon Brisson and to the generosity of some families. The bays under the bell tower and the apse, remarkable specimens of the saintongeais romanesque style, were classified in 1909 as Historic Monuments.

The cooperative dairy was created in 1889 following the phylloxera crisis (which put an end to the work of the vine). It closed its doors in 1986.

The first Saint-Jacques church dates from the 11th century but the building we can see today was rebuilt in the 19th century.