Saint Sornin church

The church of Saint Sornin is a classified historical monument dating from the 15th century and today houses the Bargees' Museum.
The former Church of Saint-Sornin, dating from the 12th century, still has a chestnut timber frame (14th century), constructed in the ‘cul de barque’ style, most likely by boatmen. Paintings uncovered at the start of the 21st century adorn the church walls (some dating from the 14th century). This former church now houses a museum, featuring boatmen’s crosses, old naval jousting breastplates, and various tools used by the boatmen of the Rhône. In one wing of the church-museum lie the ‘mandulons’. These consist of hundreds of skeletal remains, including four mummified bodies, which have been here since the 17th century. For a long time, a mystery surrounded these bodies. Victims of epidemics? Of the Wars of Religion? It would appear that these bones actually came from a mass grave, whose former ‘occupants’ were laid to rest here. The mummified bodies are thought to have been transferred here because the cemetery was submerged by a flood of the Rhône. The particular hydrometry of this site is believed to have allowed for the natural mummification of these corpses.