Notre-Dame-des-Anges (Angles)

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Notre-Dame-des-Anges church
Corbels
Relief with braided band
Dome under the crossing

The Catholic Church Notre-Dame-des-Anges ( Our Lady of the Angels ) in Angles , a parish in the Vendée department in the French region of Pays de la Loire , was founded in the second half of the 11th century as a church by an Augustinian canon built. Her patronage refers to the Lauretanian litany , in which Mary is praised as Queen of Angels . In 1913, the church was added to the list of architectural monuments in France as a monument historique .

history

The Church of Angles once belonged to an Augustinian canon, founded in the second half of the 11th century and elevated to an abbey in the 14th century . In 1371, during the Hundred Years War , the church suffered great damage. At the end of the 16th century, during the Huguenot Wars , the monastery buildings and parts of the church were destroyed. Up until the French Revolution , the abbey was administered by commanding abbots appointed by the French king . After the abbey was dissolved in 1791, the former abbey church was used as a parish church. Today Angles belongs to the parish of Notre-Dame-de-Lumière, with its seat in La Tranche-sur-Mer .

architecture

The choir head , erected in the first construction phase at the end of the 11th century, was changed in the 19th century. The west facade, the dome under the bell tower and the right arm of the transept date from the Romanesque period. The nave was completed at the beginning of the 13th century in the Gothic style .

Exterior construction

The square bell tower rises above the crossing , to which a round tower with a spiral staircase is built in the north. The west facade is structured by massive buttresses, the main portal is cut in the middle and a narrow pointed arch window opens above it. The two side portals, of which only two capitals and remains of the archivolts and columns are reminiscent, are bricked up. A cornice runs above the portal zone and rests on heavily weathered corbels that are carved with human faces, grimaces and animal heads. They are interpreted as symbols of evil and sin that are meant to keep them away from the church. A similar function is ascribed to the plaited band reliefs on the facade.

La Malebete

Malebête

The sculpture of a bear carved in granite on the gable of the west facade dates from the 12th century. The name Malebête goes back to a legend according to which a monster threatened the inhabitants of Angles in the Middle Ages until a hermit captured and tamed it. The young girls, however, made fun of the hermit, whereupon he took revenge by letting the animal climb onto the roof of the church and turn it to stone with the curse of making ugly all girls who were to see it.

inner space

Choir

The church is built on the plan of a Latin cross . The single nave nave is divided into two bays and is covered by ribbed vaults. In the east it opens into a choir with a semicircular apse vaulted by a dome . The three sculptures leaning against the vault ribs, the heads of which were chopped off, date to the 12th century. They presumably depict Eleanor of Aquitaine , her second husband, Henry II of England, and their son Richard the Lionheart .

  • Eleanor of Aquitaine

  • sculpture

  • sculpture

crypt

crypt

The crypt , spanned by groin vaults , dates from the 12th century. It was probably never used as a repository for relics or for the burial of a martyr, but served as a refuge for the population in the Middle Ages and was connected to a network of underground passages and cellars.

Furnishing

  • Numerous tombstones from the 16th and 17th centuries have been preserved in the church.

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Vendée . Flohic Éditions, Volume 2, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84234-118-X , pp. 647-648.

Web links

Commons : Notre-Dame-des-Anges (Angles)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Église in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ↑ Église de Sainte Marie des Angles Observatoire du Patrimoine Religieux (French text, accessed on January 22, 2019)

Coordinates: 46 ° 24 '16.9 "  N , 1 ° 24' 11.9"  W.