Notre-Dame (Champdeniers)

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Champdeniers - Notre-Dame church with a Romanesque crossing tower and a late Gothic flat choir

The former priory church Notre-Dame de Champdeniers stands on the edge of a hill in the French commune of Champdeniers in the Deux-Sèvres department ( Nouvelle-Aquitaine region ). It once belonged to the Maillezais Abbey just 40 kilometers to the west . The building has been classified as a Monument historique since 1862 .

Building history

The nave of the former Notre-Dame de Champdeniers priory church , built in Romanesque style, may date from the end of the 11th century. The crossing tower was built in the 12th century. The choir was redesigned in the late Gothic style in the 15th century ; it was given a straight choir closure with three tracery windows .

architecture

facade

Champdeniers - Notre-Dame, covered porch with benches and a simple west portal without a tympanum

The facade is designed very simply - it actually consists only of an undecorated wall surface with a gable front with two lateral and two central buttresses for the static stabilization of the masonry. Above and on both sides of the portal, three small - just simply stepped back - windows are embedded in the masonry.

The extremely simple and - in comparison to the other church buildings in Poitou - almost archaic-looking portal is divided into three parts: The central arcade forms the actual entrance; the two - somewhat lower - side arcades are blind. Three simple, undecorated but beautifully graduated archivolts form the top; they rest on pillars (outside) or on columns (inside) - as is usual in Poitou, there is no tympanum . Even in this simple form, the ancient triumphal arch scheme can be recognized, which is subsequently varied in many later church buildings in Poitou and in Saintonge .

The small roofed façade porch with its benches, which continue in the two side blind arcades of the portal, may not have been original, but was added at a later time - perhaps for reasons of stability. There is also the possibility that such a porch was formerly used by the men of the village for deliberations, court sessions, etc.

Longhouse

The nave, which is designed as a three-aisled hall church and can only - as is usual in Poitou - be reached via several steps leading downwards, is much more developed : Pillars or half-pillar templates made of light limestone combine to form early bundle pillars and support that - underpinned by belt arches - Barrel vaults of the central nave and the groin vaults of the side aisles.

A large number of capitals form the only, but highly remarkable architectural ornament of the otherwise undecorated church interior: Most are decorated with vegetable motifs or with mythical creatures ( chimeras ); several braided ribbon motifs can also be seen. A few also show human figures in a very archaic style - but not a single biblical theme is recognizable.

Choir

The choir area, which was redesigned in the Gothic style in the 15th century, has a straight end of the choir, which is stabilized by four buttresses (two in the corners and two in the middle). It is dominated by a large central tracery window, the partially preserved original glazing probably originating from the town itself, as the settlement of a glass workshop is attested to the end of the Middle Ages. The choir has a total of three late Gothic windows and houses several altars from the Baroque period. The keystones of the rib vault bear the coat of arms of the Lords of Rochechouart, who probably contributed to the financing of the renovation.

Champdeniers - Notre-Dame, crypt

crypt

Under the formerly much smaller choir area with a Romanesque apse is a crypt - unique in Poitou - whose simple arched vaults rest on monolithic columns; their bases , in turn, stand on approximately 50 cm high pillars. The stone carving on the four slender capitals is much more 'primitive' than that of the nave.

The crypt was originally built only because the area faces east, i.e. H. in the direction of the choir area, falls significantly - therefore for stabilization purposes and hardly for the purpose of worshiping relics .

Crossing tower

The octagonal crossing tower with sound openings and a pointed helmet shows a clearly more developed Romanesque repertoire of forms and can be assigned to the 12th century. It rests on a square substructure and was added to the building - according to an often read view - as part of the redesign of the choir area, i. H. set up in the 15th century; However, the clearly Romanesque shape of the tower would then be astonishing. The floor plan on the other hand (see pictures) dates the tower - incorrectly but also the entire nave - to the 12th century.

Such crossing towers are rare in Poitou (see Prieuré St-Nicolas de Civray ) and are mostly associated with architectural influences from neighboring Limousin or the more distant Auvergne .

  • Champdeniers - Notre-Dame, floor plan

  • Champdeniers - Notre-Dame, nave. Aisles with ridge vaults, central nave with barrel vaults

  • Champdeniers - Notre-Dame, capital in the crypt with human mask

  • Champdeniers - Notre-Dame, capital with lion masks, foliage and plait

  • Champdeniers - Notre-Dame, capital with 'half' lions

meaning

The simple but fully developed former priory church of Champdeniers for the construction period towards the end of the 11th century stands - for today's viewers - at the beginning of the great church buildings in Poitou ( Notre-Dame-la-Grande de Poitiers , Prieuré St-Nicolas de Civray , St-Pierre d'Aulnay , St-Hilaire de Melle ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Église Notre-Dame, Champdeniers in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

literature

Web links

Commons : Notre-Dame (Champdeniers)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 46 ° 29 ′ 1.5 ″  N , 0 ° 24 ′ 12.4 ″  W.