Murat, Église Saint-Nicholas

    Parish of the diocese of Bourges under the patronage of Le Montet. A three-bay nave with a pointed barrel vault in the main vessel and groin vaulted aisles with the exception of a quandant vault in the western most bay of the north aisle. The groins of the aisles are double curved. To the east there is a narrower bay opening into the central apse which is flanked by apsidal chapels. The apses seem much too low for the height of the nave leaving a considerable expanse of wall framed by a pointed arch above the apse roof. Main apse in ashlar and lateral apses in petit appareil. The western frontispiece was rebuilt in the 18th century as was the upper part of the bell tower which sits to the south of the church. On the south flank a sacristy and a fifteenth-century porch or caquetoire. The church bears witness to the principal structural problem faced in this type of edifice?failure of the outer walls. Massive flying buttresses, spanning almost the width of the nave, surround the exterior of the structure. These later additions are in stark contrast to the extremely thin original buttresses, and consequently evidence a serious concern with the stability of the structure. Murat was the seat of the dames de Bourbon in the later middle ages. The church has particularly lavish post-medieval painted decoration.