Perched at 1,250 meters above sea level on the Aillou plateau, Prades is one of the highest villages in Ariège. This high mountain situation gives it a singular character: a tight habitat, a preserved environment and a rural heritage of great authenticity.
Dated from the 12th century, the church preserves the essential features of Romanesque architecture, with sober shapes and an emblematic bell tower of the Pyrenean piedmont. This bell tower, the vestige of the original building, has three levels of campanary bays: the small lower openings, intended for secondary bells; intermediate berry, which enhances visual balance; and the large upper openings, reserved for the main bells that rhythmized the life of the village. This gradation, typical of bell tower-walls « Developments » Couserans and Haute-Ariège, give the whole a remarkable vertical harmony, seeking to give an effect of elevation and hierarchy.
The interior houses a monumental Baroque altarpiece attributed to Joseph Sunyer, carved at the end of the seventeenth century and considered the largest baroque altarpiece in France. Today, the restoration of the roof is the priority in order to preserve this exceptional heritage complex.
Attached to the parish complex of Ax-les-Thermes, in the diocese of Pamiers, Couserans and Mirepoix, the church remains a living place of local religious practice. It regularly hosts services, including Sunday Masses and major liturgical celebrations, including the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, celebrated on June 29, perpetuating a centuries-old tradition in the heart of this mountain village.
