Notre-Dame (La Souterraine)
The former priory church of Notre-Dame is located in the middle of the French community La Souterraine , with about 5300 inhabitants (2008), in the Creuse department , in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region , about 45 kilometers south of Argenton-sur-Creuse and 50 kilometers north of Limoges .
The unusual name La Souterraine means "The Underground" and had precursors such as Sosterranea and Subterranea . It goes back to an underground pre-Romanesque sanctuary from the 10th century, still preserved under the church , which houses two Gallo-Roman fountains and tombs of a Gallo-Roman necropolis, which suggest an ancient pre-Christian place of worship.
Around this "underground" a village the size of a hamlet had developed. A monastery with a first church was built above the buildings of the sanctuary. It was followed by the church that is preserved today and the expansion of the settlement, which was surrounded by a fortified city wall.
Today's Notre-Dame parish church , which was built on it for over a century, illustrates in a single building the transitions between the two major styles, from Romanesque to High Gothic . Today nothing is left of the convent buildings on the north side of the church.
Historical
The roots of La Souterraine go back to the little village of Bridiers , a good one kilometer from the local border , which was called Bretum in antiquity and was a Gallo-Roman city at the time. It was important because of its location at the intersection of two Roman roads , that from Poitiers to Ahun (Acitodunum) and that from Limoges to Châteauroux . Important artefacts from Roman times have been excavated in Bridiers . In the years 275 or 276, Bretum is said to have been completely destroyed by the Alemanni by arson, which is proven by archaeological traces of fire. As a result, Bretum was uninhabited for a long time. Afterwards, a fortified castle was built on a hill near the former city as the seat of the mighty county of Bridiers , of which a stately round tower and several remains of the wall still testify.
In their “shadow” lay the hamlet of La Souterraine , which was first mentioned in 992 as Sosterranea , later also as Subterranea , the name of which already indicated something underground.
In 1015 gave Gérald de Crozant ( Crozant : locality 20 km northeast of La Souterraine ), Viscount (Fri Viscount of) Bridiers , the monks of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Martial of Limoges his Villa La Souterraine , a hamlet which to Bridiers belonged, in which the pre-Romanesque sanctuary was located, in which early Christian services were presumably celebrated. A brick building with a wooden roof was erected above him.
The monks soon founded a priory, headed by Rudolph Barthon , restored the sanctuary between 1017 and 1022 in which they housed their relics and, with the support of the villagers, expanded it to include three chapels, a central main chapel in the eastern extension of the old sanctuary and two Side chapels were flanked, which were connected to them by barrel-vaulted transition rooms. Because of the slope of the site from west to east, the new buildings protruded significantly above the terrain. The northern, eastern and southern outer walls of the crypt extension were the basis of the first and later today's church.
In August 1022 the bones of the deceased donor Vicomte Gérald were buried in the crypt, of which no traces have been preserved.
A first church was then built over the buildings of the enlarged crypt , which was consecrated to "Notre-Dame de La Souterraine" and was completed around 1060. Apart from the transept and the choir, no information is known about their appearance and size. It was certainly much smaller than today's. The priory's convent buildings were built on its north side .
In 1036 and 1037, Béraud , son of Gérald , benefited from the first conflict between the monks of the priory and the residents about the amount of their taxes in order to recapture the place. But he had - close to death - remorse and fear of being punished with agony. He then returned to the monastery and gave the monks more of his goods, which were invested in financing the construction work, but were soon used up.
In 1070 Geoffroi (Gottfried) de Bridiers donated part of his income to the monks' building work.
The count (fr. Comte ) of the neighboring Bridiers observed the activities of the monks on the border to his lands particularly critically. His aggressive behavior led to disputes and impediments to construction, which led the monks to build fortifications.
The pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain began towards the end of the 11th century . Its greatest heyday took place in the first half of the 12th century, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims moved south every year. The Way of St. James in France was formed from four main routes, accompanied by a network of numerous secondary routes.
Numerous new churches, monasteries, hospices, hostels and cemeteries were built along these paths, and existing facilities were expanded to meet the new requirements. For a pilgrimage church, above all, more space was needed for the numerous pilgrims , such as the ambulatory and side aisles , and as many chapels as possible for the presentation of relics and their veneration.
The priory with the Church of Notre-Dame de La Souterraine was on one of the four main routes of the Camino de Santiago in France, the Via Lemovicensis , from Vezelay (Burgundy) to Ostabat (before the Pyrenees crossing). Towards the end of the 11th century, the monks had to realize that their 40-year-old church was hardly able to cope with the spatial requirements of a pilgrimage church on one of the main routes to Spain. Accordingly, they could only participate to a limited extent in the increasing amount of donations from the pilgrims.
The new building of today's church , begun in 1120, was actually an extension and modernization of the existing transept and choir head of the first church, which had only been completed for about 60 years. In order to initially still be able to use the previous building for the divine services of the St. James pilgrims regardless of the disruptions caused by the construction work, a first implementation campaign of the expansion at the new western end to the east was started, initially with the first two yokes , which are still completely Constructed and furnished in Romanesque style, and initially only with the stump of the bell tower.
The first yoke of the central nave was covered with a high pendent dome within the base of the tower, the second with a pointed barrel vault and the aisles with groined vaults . The dividing walls did not yet have a windowed upper balcony .
When the quarrels between France and England over Aquitaine began after the middle of the 12th century , the pilgrimage declined. The later wars of the 13th and 14th centuries Century, such as the Hundred Years War (1339-1453), brought a dramatic slump and led to an almost complete cessation of the streams of pilgrims to Spain. The main construction period of the church fell into this declining development of the pilgrimages, with the declining income from donations, the progress of which repeatedly came up against financial limits, which it extended.
Presumably with the completion of the first construction phase before 1170, consisting of the first two yokes and a wall of the third, it was temporarily closed behind the second yoke and made accessible to pilgrims for the celebration of church services. The partially remaining buildings of the barely 90-year-old predecessor building, with its significant crypt, continued to be used to honor the existing relics.
The known sources hardly provide any information about the further construction of the bell tower . From the predominantly Romanesque style elements on the two upper floors, however, it can be assumed that it was created before it was taken, but perhaps while the next construction phase was being carried out. Parts of the blind arcades on the upper edge of the third floor, other decorative elements and the spire come from the high Gothic period of the 13th century.
In 1170, work began on the second implementation campaign , the third and fourth yoke of the nave, the Romanesque shell of which is partly furnished with early Gothic style elements, such as the ribbed vaults of the central nave, which allow the windowed upper aisles . The side aisles are still covered with Roman groin vaults . After its completion, around 1080/90, the believers were able to "move" into the almost finished nave after a provisional closure behind the fourth yoke, although hardly any pilgrims were still involved. The above-ground parts of the previous nave had since been abandoned and demolished. The walls of the transept, with its chapels and the choir of the previous church were preserved from demolition, except for the Romanesque vaults and pillars.
In 1171 the dispute between the monks and the residents of the city flared up again, in which it was again about the financing of the church under construction. The clerics wanted to collect a hefty serf tax. The city was then captured by the French king (1137–1180) Louis VII (fr. Louis) called Le Jeune (the younger) and he was then excommunicated (banned) from the church . In any case, he managed to calm down La Souterraine temporarily.
In 1177 the troops of the later Henry II (English. Henry), King of England (1154–1189), conquered the city. The church treasure disappeared in his war chest. At the request of the monks, he exempted the residents from paying taxes and granted them considerable support to continue the construction work. The church was later popularly referred to as "a work of the English".
These donations were soon used up again. The monks therefore demanded an extraordinary amount of their taxes from the inhabitants, with the result that both the bourgeoisie and the citizens resisted and revolted. On Easter Monday 1190, the prior Raymond de Vigeois was murdered. A stele in today's cemetery, called "Mousse Gagné" (inflated profit), presents his portrait. Several monks were abducted and cruelly mutilated.
In 1195 a new conflict broke out over the subject of taxes. Philip II. August (fr. Philippe Auguste) and Richard the Lionheart King of England (1189 to 1199) reached an agreement between residents and monks: The residents should only pay half of the required tax, while the monks should withdraw the king's ban . The amount of money obtained from this was soon exhausted again in the building. Thereupon Richard the Lionheart financed large parts of the transept, the choir and the bell tower, to which the monks contributed a share.
In 1207 Hugo IX took. of Lusignan , called "the brown one" (fr. Hugh le Brun ), Count of the Marche , the city and destroyed parts of its walls. The stones from the towers were used to build the bell tower. At the same time he withdrew La Souterraine from British occupation.
In the third implementation campaign , roughly between 1195 and 1233, which spanned the last 40 to 50 years of its construction, the fifth central nave yoke was built in the style of the previous one. This was followed by the modernization of the "old" transept, its chapels and the three-bay choir head and the erection of the tower spire. Among other things, the Romanesque vaults and pillars were replaced by high-Gothic, slender bundle pillars and steeply towering stilted cross-ribbed vaults with uniform crown heights reminiscent of hall churches . The crossing was covered with a new, higher-reaching pendentive dome. The chapels of the crypt were given early Romanesque ribbed vaults, or their previous ribbed vaults were retrofitted with ribs.
During this last phase of construction, the income from donations by the St. James pilgrims fell sharply and later dried up almost entirely. There remained only the regional pilgrims who came to see their own relics and the early Christian sanctuary of La Souterraine .
The “new” church is evidently consecrated to “Notre-Dame” in 1220 and after a construction period of over 110 years it was completed around 1233, the extension of the construction period being mainly based on the decline and later lack of pilgrimage donations.
In 1223, a Monsignor Simon came through La Souterraine to advise the monks to allow the residents to build wooden stalls around the church. The funds from these concessions were then intended to finance the decoration of the church, but only insofar as funds for urgent repairs to the construction were not yet exhausted. The proposal was gratefully accepted and implemented.
The monks' concessions, which were initially limited in time, later became final and “perpetual” sales, through which the monks ensured the daily needs of the population. In La Souterraine, you can still remember a grocery store next to the church (see graphic from the 19th century).
From 1226 the rebuilding of the city walls began. These times gave the older parts of the church building the retrofitting with defensive facilities , especially with defense attachments over the eaves of the church roofs. The lower eaves of the aisles and the facade had to be retrofitted by converting the original classic eaves. They received masonry walls behind which the defenders could bend to protect themselves. The rainwater was collected behind the attics in accessible stone channels and drained to the outside via gargoyles. These attic walls, a good one meter above the gutter, have been partially but also completely removed in modern times. The preserved eaves cornices on carved corbels are only of decorative significance.
The significantly higher defensive attics of the transept with its chapels and choir were carried out in the course of the third and last phase of construction.
The rebuilt city fortifications and equipment of the church with defense attachments proved their worth in 1356 when the English failed in their attempt to take the city again. But only four years later the English received La Souterraine without a fight , because the Peace of Brétigny (May 1360) also included this city. In 1382 it went back to the King of France.
At the beginning of the 15th century the fortifications of the church were strengthened, and the city received a third series of fortifications, supplemented by trenches and palisades, which did not allow the marauding troops of the Wars of Religion (1562–1598) to spare the city. The former convent buildings on the north side of the church were largely destroyed at that time. In 1630, however, the "House of the Chapter" is said to have still been there.
In 1750 the dilapidated paving of the nave and the first part of the transept were renewed. This led to an increase in the floor level and the pier bases.
The events of the French Revolution (1789) or the following years probably caused the disappearance of this remnant of the former convent building . During the revolution the church became a "temple of reason".
A graphic, presumably from the 19th century, shows a frontal view of the westwork of the church, with the defensive attics still preserved in full height. But these are completely covered with pent roofs. This means that these attics were only removed in the course of restoration work to the height they still have today and the roofs behind them were lowered. The graphic also does not show the two turrets on the corners of the westwork. They are obviously reconstructions by Paul Abadie (1812–1884) and form the upper ends of the two spiral staircases in the side wall pillars of the westwork, which reached from the floor of the nave to the level of the eaves of the aisles. When the Wehrattiken emerged, they had to give way because they were led around the pillars. The open arch of the main portal, which is now glazed, is shown closed in the graphic. It is also noticeable that on its south side a two- to three-story development of terraced houses moved very close to the aisle wall. It is likely the remains of the stalls suggested by Monsignor Simon in 1223 that became permanent concessions.
The church was listed as a historical monument in 1840 . Between 1850 and 1870 the church was restored by the architect Paul Abadie.
In 1871 new glass windows were installed in the transept and choir.
In 2005 the bell tower threatened to collapse, and the mayor was compelled to evacuate part of the population of the city center until the lower part of the westwork was braced with temporary supports. After the structural fixing of the masonry, the temporary struts could be removed again in June 2008. The restoration work on the tower and in the first three bays was completed in mid-2009.
Building
Dimensions
approximate dimensions, taken from the drawings and extrapolated
- Overall length outside (without wall pillar templates): 59.20 m
- Outside length of the nave (without wall pillar templates): 38.20 m
- Longhouse length inside: 36.20 m
- Outside width of the nave (without wall pillar templates): 14.20 m
- Central nave width between the partition walls: 6.20 m
- Outside transept length (without wall pillar templates): 28.90 m
- Inside transept width: 6.10 m
- Width of transept with chapels outside (without wall pillars): 13.30 m
- Choir main width outside (without wall pillars): 10.40 m
- Bell tower height over terrain: 48.00 m
- Height of the pendentive dome yoke 1: 16.10.00 m
- Height of the central nave vault at the apex: 13.00 m
- Height of the pendentive dome over the crossing: 17.00 m
- Height of the choir at the apex: 14.00 m
Outward appearance
Nave with westwork
The nave stands on an elongated rectangular floor plan, the inner division of which into five bays is visible on the outside through four massive buttresses of the same size , which are rectangular in the full height and which reach up to the eaves. The first pillars, in extension of the facade, contain spiral staircases and have trapezoidal, outwardly narrowed cross-sections. Above the pent roof ridges of the flat sloping aisle roofs rise up the upper aisles, which are divided into bays two to five by three flat buttresses. Their cross-sections, which are slightly tapered in the upper area, reach below the eaves.
The central nave is covered by a 45 degree pitched roof, which is covered with red tile shingles. Their eaves consist of sturdy cornice panels with a grooved lower visible edge, which rest on a row of simply designed cantilever consoles with a central overhang, with inwardly rounded fronts. Modern hanging gutters made of zinc sheet are installed above the cornice panels, which catch the rainwater and drain it away in a controlled manner via rainwater pipes. In the middle between the buttresses there are slender, arched windows , in the second yoke there are no windows because of the barrel vault, but door openings through which one can get to the vault, and from there into the bell tower and the eastern parts of the building.
The side aisles and the façade, which protrudes significantly from the first yoke, were originally covered with flat sloping monopitch roofs, which ended at the lower edge with classic eaves formations made of angular cornice panels with a medium projection, which rest on cantilever consoles, almost all of which are sculptured figuratively, more rarely vegetal. These cornices on consoles are led around all protruding buttresses and are still completely preserved today, but are only of decorative significance. The tops of the buttresses are covered with stone slabs with bevelled edges. In the middle of the upper half of the wall there is a slender, arched window, except in yoke one on the north side and yoke three on the south side. On this side, in the first construction phase in yokes one and two, there are windows typical of the Romanesque style of the Limousin with the dissolution of the edges of the drapery in setbacks, in which curved rods are set on columns with sculpted fighters. Between the pillars, the height of the church floor is marked by protrusions on the base. The arched windows in the north aisle have sharp-edged edges that are broken up into simple setbacks.
In the third yoke of the south side is the south portal with an almost square opening in the middle of a large arcade niche with a slightly pointed arch that is as wide as the distance between the buttresses and as deep as their projection. The sharp-edged Keilsteinbogen and the masonry gussets above it are flush with the front of the pillars. About a meter below the eaves cornice is a second eaves cornice on carved cantilever consoles, in the same design as the one above. The upper surface between the pillars is covered with outwardly inclined stone slabs.
The wedge arch is covered by a double round bar profile, the apex of which extends below the cantilever consoles. The back of the arcade niche is divided horizontally at the level of the arches with similar cornice panels on corbels, as with the eaves. The outer edge of the cornice is rounded, and the dimensions of the consoles are significantly smaller. Above the cornice, a wedge arch flush with the surface can be seen in the masonry, in the width of the portal opening, which should transfer its loads to the side wall sections. In front of the portal, nine steps lead up to the level of the church floor. They are delimited by parapets as an extension of the buttresses.
In the center of the arch of the south portal, the crowned Queen of Heaven, Notre-Dame , is enthroned facing the viewer. The baby Jesus sits on her lap with his right hand raised as a blessing, in his left hand he holds the closed “Book of Life”. His mother supports him with his left hand, and she holds a lily scepter in her right. Your head is presumably covered by a blind arcade arch that belongs to the heavenly throne. The sculpture is believed to date from the 12th century, but it may also be older. It could be a re-use of the previous structure of the first church, which was built around the middle of the 11th century and was also dedicated to “Notre-Dame” . This is indicated by the two iron hooks with which it was attached. There is a similar sculpture on the western pillar of the gable wall of the southern arm of the transept.
Eaves cornice on consoles, yoke 2
Eaves cornice on consoles
Eaves cornice on consoles
Eaves cornice on the pillar
The stone rain gutters that were installed behind these when the classic eaves were converted into the defense attics are also preserved today , the outer edges of which are visible above the eaves of the south aisles. They are drained through copper downpipes. Above the north and west eaves, the first two lower wall layers of the Wehrattiken are also preserved, which are covered with slightly cantilevered slabs and equipped with gargoyles, which together with the covered stone rain gutters still do their job today. For the eaves of the central aisle, one could do without defense attics, as those of the side aisles were in front of them.
Above the first wall pillars as an extension of the facade and the spiral staircase located therein, the turrets that were removed during the time of military equipment can be seen again today, which are reconstructions from the 19th century. On an octagonal floor plan there are parapets in the form of the preserved attic remains. The wall sections above are pierced by seven twin arcades, with slender, round-arched, partly rectangular openings that meet in the middle of columns that are equipped with simply carved capitals, profiled fighters and capital-like bases. A door opening towards the tower has been cut out in one of the walls. The walls are covered by octagonal, steeply inclined pyramid roofs, the eaves of which protrude slightly as cove profiles, which are carved with a jagged frieze. Their stone roof surfaces are decorated with scaled ornaments. Their tips are crowned by a pommel on a stem.
The central main portal dominates the facade, which is bordered on the top by the cornices described above on corbels and the remains of the defensive attic. It is a six-step archivolt portal of great depth, the inner opening of which is closed with a rectangular double-winged wooden door, in which a smaller wicket door is incorporated for everyday passage. The door is separated by a glazed and barred arched field by a wooden bar. All round arches show a barely noticeable point. The semicircular open arched field is enclosed by a nine-pass tracery that stands on both sides on semicircular columns that are equipped with carved capitals and reach down to the floor. All other archivolts stand on straight plinths that protrude up to almost 50 centimeters above the stair landing at the height of the church floor.
Gallery capitals main portal
The border of the portal opening is initially enclosed by a sharp-edged wall projection, which is accompanied on the inside by a slim three-quarter round bar. The arch approaches of the round bars are marked by small carved capitals. This protruding wall is followed a little further out by another, whose arch approaches are again marked by carved capitals. In the course of the arch, the recess is bulged nine times in the form of circular segments, which are accompanied by three-quarter round bars of the same shape. The vertical recesses are each formed in three similar but somewhat larger bulges with round bars. This is followed by a sharp-edged setback with round bars, without bulges. This is followed by three more wall projections with round bars, two with and one without bulges, which get bigger and bigger outwards. All round bars stand on profiled bases. The outer wedge arch is covered by double round bars, the ends of which stand on short transom profiles. Their apex extends below the cantilever consoles of the original eaves. The fan portal can not deny Mozarabic influences. The entrance stairs in front of the portal have three steps.
On both sides of the main portal there are very slender, round-arched blind arcade niches with an almost square cross-section, which begin at the height of the portal base and end a short distance below the cantilever consoles. In the upper third of the niche, a round-arched window of the same width opens. In the northern niche, a slender octagonal stele is placed on a profiled base , which tapers slightly towards the top. It ends in a flat, round pommel with a forged cross on it, with decorative arms.
The three-storey bell tower rises on an almost square floor plan above the first bay of the central nave. The lower basement is almost completely closed and extends from the roofs of the monopitch roofs of the side aisles to just above the ridge of the central nave. On the west side, a round arched window is cut out at the lower edge of the tower base. The considerable difference in the stone color indicates that the next two floors were built in a later phase of construction. It is closed on the top by a cantilever cornice, which strangely enough is profiled differently from the middle of the southern tower side to the middle of the northern one around half the tower and extends differently than the one on the other half of the tower. All sides of the basement are each decorated with a slightly pointed, round-arched large blind arcade, which in particular leads to material savings with the same stability, which can be seen from the fact that the arcade has also been laid out on the east side, although it is covered except for small arched sections . Their wedge arches are covered by cantilever profiles, the arch approaches of which, as well as those of the wedge arches, are marked with short transom profiles. A good one meter above the pent roof ridges, another cantilever cornice is led around the free sides of the tower, which also covers the wedge-shaped arch of the small round-arched window in the middle of the west side. The tower corners are reinforced below this profile with pillar templates and are broken above with setbacks, which lead to under the final cornice, sometimes ending a little below.
The middle storey is significantly lower than the previous one and obviously belongs to the bell storeys . It is closed on the top by a projecting cantilever cornice, which rests on cantilever consoles on the west and south sides. The cornice is on the tower edges, except for the southwest, led around two times 45 degrees. The north and east walls are completely closed, and in the upper area they recede somewhat compared to the walls below. Your lower third is steeply sloping outwards. On the south-east and north-east edge there is a niche, rotated by 45 degrees, about half the height of the storey, for the installation of a statue, which is reminiscent of the shape of a Gothic pinnacle . The lower part is a console with a polygonal plan, its upper part is a pointed polygonal spire, all decorated with a variety of Gothic elements. The sculptures have obviously been lost. The south-west edge is broken in full by a setback.
The western wall shows a blind arcade in the southern half, which is framed by four-tier archivolts. The double round bar profiles merge into the arches without any caesura. Their outer parting reaches almost a meter below the cantilevered cornice. The parapet is steeply sloping outwards. The arcade niche was probably once an open sound opening. In the northern half of the wall, a round arched, but clearly smaller sound opening is left out, with walls that are flared outwards, the edges of which are broken with partially circular rod profiles, the arches of which are marked with small capitals and which stand on high bases. The outer vertex is about the same height as that of the neighboring one. The arched field is decorated with Gothic tracery in the form of a nun's head . The parapet is steeply sloping.
The south wall has a similar opening and a blind arcade, but in a mirror-inverted arrangement. The sound opening is slightly higher and reaches almost under the cornice. The wall section below the window is steeply sloping outwards.
The third and top floor is the highest of all three tower floors. The floor plan consists of an octagon, of which four walls stand in the middle of the walls of the square middle floor, but recede a little. The other four walls, angled by 45 degrees, create four triangular horizontal surfaces from the square outline of the storey below, on which there are roughly three-quarter-round masonry cylinders that largely fill them up. The edges of the octagon are broken up into semicircular bar profiles. Between the cylinders and the octagonal sides extending from them, triangular-like surfaces have been created in the plan, which are filled with steep slopes from about the middle floor height downwards. Almost two meters below the eaves of the tower roof, the entire floor outline is surrounded by a cantilever profile, the outline above recedes a bit. The cylinders become octagonal prisms there. In the octagonal sides between the cylinders, slim, slightly pointed, rounded sound openings are recessed on all sides, which extend to just below the aforementioned cantilever profile. Their garments consist of three-tier archivolts with partially round rod profiles. Its sloping parapets are on the south and east sides just above the height of the cornice dividing the floors, while those on the other sides are about two meters higher.
The uppermost section of the third floor is clad on the north, west and half of the south side with Romanesque galleries of round-arched blind arcades. Their arches made of double partially round profiles stand together on slender pillars with simply designed capitals and strong profiled fighters. They still carry a narrow strip of walls that are covered by simple cantilever profiles. On the other sides of the tower there are Gothic galleries made up of pointed arcades that are double-wide. Its arches consist of round bars, each of which stands together on pillars that are equipped with simple capitals and profiled bases on high angular plinths. Most of the blind arcades are decorated with Gothic tracery with three nuns' heads. The middle profile stands on bases, as with the pillars. In the polygonal corner towers, the blind arcades are as wide as the Romanesque ones, but covered with curved pointed arches, the tips of which are crowned like pinnacles. They stand together with additional pinnacles on the pillars described above. In the Gothic arcades, the shapes of the lower and upper cantilever cornices also alternate. Parts of the Gothic galleries have been destroyed.
It is not known or apparent whether the change to the Gothic decor only took place after the Romanesque had been demolished, or whether the execution of the Romanesque galleries was interrupted in order to continue the work in the Gothic decor.
The design of today's wooden spire is a work of the High Gothic era. The lower section has the shape of a gently sloping “truncated pyramid”, the base of which is a square and the top of which is a significantly smaller octagon. This structure has four trapezoidal and four triangular side surfaces. Its eaves clearly protrude from the outer walls of the upper tower floor. Above this is an octagonal section, which has a narrow band of circumferential ventilation openings at the top. Above this is a short, flat, inclined octagonal truncated pyramid on which a steeply inclined octagonal truncated pyramid rests, which merges into a slim octagonal shape at the upper end, the dimensions of which remain unchanged upwards. The top cover consists of a slightly wider, gently sloping, low truncated cone on which sits a cylindrical section that ends in a hemispherical cover. The roofing of the tower helm consists of small-format wooden roof shingles.
Transept, its chapels and choir head
From the outside, the entire eastern section of the church beyond the nave gives hardly any inkling that its interior is essentially designed from high Gothic architectural elements. All of the outer walls of this last phase of construction with its huge buttresses with a rectangular cross-section are more reminiscent of the defiant, fortress-like architecture of the Romanesque, with small window openings. They obviously come from the previous structure of today's church, which was built around the middle of the 11th century over the original sanctuary and its extension.
The transept, consisting of the central crossing and the transept arms that extend far beyond the nave in the floor plan, together with its chapels of the same height and the first choir bay, form a structural unit that is united under a common symmetrical saddle roof with roof surfaces sloping around 45 degrees . This is penetrated by another gable roof with approximately the same inclination and the same ridge and eaves height, as an extension of the central nave, which, in addition to the crossing, also covers the entire choir. The ends of the two gable roofs butt against the gable walls, which protrude slightly above them at the same incline, and also against the one above the connection between the nave and the transept. This gable compensates for the great differences in height between the gable roofs of the adjoining components. The gable walkways are covered by slightly cantilevered panels that bend horizontally a little at their lower ends. The roofs of the gable walls of the transept are each crowned by a paw cross , with widely spread arms and a circular hole in its center. A Gothic finial crowns the ridge of the choir gable wall.
The eaves of the transept with its chapels and the choir were also equipped with defense attachments , which correspond to those of the former retrofitting of the eaves above the aisles. As with the side aisles, the cornice panels were retained on the simply designed cantilever consoles of the former classic eaves, which, however, only serve decorative purposes after the conversion. Their heights are on that of the central nave eaves. They are led around a good distance to the gable walls on the building edges.
Above this, the still complete defense attics rise up, reinforced roughly in the center with a cantilever profile and covered on the top with cantilevered cornice panels. Behind the parapets there are stone rain gutters on the wall crowns, which divert the collected rainwater to the outside via still existing gargoyles. At the time when the defense attics were required, the actual eaves of the roof surfaces must have been a bit behind and under the parapets.
All six building edges of the eastern section are reinforced with two rectangular buttresses , each two meters wide , which recede a short distance from the edge. Their tops reach almost up to the height of the cantilever consoles of the imitated eaves, are steeply sloping towards the outside and are covered with flat stone slabs that overlap one another like roof tiles. The front sides of the pillars recede in a steadily decreasing fashion from bottom to top. On the two east walls of the transept chapels, corresponding to the inner division, one such pillar has been erected. On the gable walls of the transept there is a slightly wider pillar, which is offset off-center to the east in accordance with the inner division and which contains a spiral staircase that leads up to the roof space above the vaults. The south-facing pillar on the south-eastern edge of the choir was later reinforced on all sides and steadily widened towards the bottom. It is divided horizontally twice in height by cantilever profiles.
On the south-facing buttress on the south-western edge of the south arm of the transept, there is a second sculpture of the enthroned Queen of Heaven, Notre-Dame , which is very similar to the one above the south portal. The stone of the sculpture shows the same gray to gray-brown color as the surrounding masonry, which leads to the assumption that the sculpture dates from the time the transept walls were created, i.e. around the middle of the 11th century. She fills a round arched wall niche and with her right hand supports the Jesus boy sitting on her lap, who holds his right hand upright to greet him with blessing and with his left hand presses the closed "Book of Life" to his chest. Mary holds up a lily scepter in her right hand. She wears a crown with large spikes, under the edge of which her smooth shoulder-length hair protrudes. The head and crown of Mary are framed by a semicircular arch made of a three-quarter round rod profile, the straight ends of which tend slightly outwards downwards. The round bar is separated at the level of the arches. Both ends are carried by a little larger head. On the vertex of the curved rod, a spherical shape emerges with a letter engraved in it, perhaps a V.
The niche is bordered on the sides and above by a wide frame protruding slightly from the surface of the masonry, the joints of which merge into those of the masonry. The niche edges of the frame are broken with fine double fillets. Its keystone is adorned with a raised equal-armed clover-leaf cross , also known as the Lazarus cross. The sculpture stands on a two-tiered cornice made of narrow ribbons, in which a Latin inscription is engraved in capital letters, but which can hardly be deciphered. The following text fragments can be recognized:
* ... EXIT ...... DIACORVS JESVS SO ...
*… .CAS ........... NOVE ... ANNO ....
In the center of the gable triangle of the transept gable walls, a pair of slot-like rectangular windows are cut out, which light up the roof space somewhat. Between the two pillars of the transept arms, just below the height of the pillar covers, a circular ox eye is recessed, the wedge of which is enclosed on both sides by thin rod profiles. Between the pillars of the outer transept chapels there is a very slender, arched window, the walls of which spread outwards. Their vertices are approximately at the middle level of the neighboring ox-eye.
In the east walls of the transept chapels there was originally one such window with the same apex height between their pillars, on the side walls of the choir head there were two of these windows. In the corner between the north choir wall and the east walls of the transept chapels, a modern two-storey outbuilding was built, which made it necessary to raise the parapets of these windows. In this building there is a sacristy and other ancillary rooms on the upper floor, and an access area to the crypt in the lower floor. The west wall of the southern arm of the transept has no window openings.
The east gable wall of the choir presents the only pointed arched window in the church, whose proportions seem a bit squat, exactly centered. The apex of its wedge arch is almost level with the upper edges of the sloping pillars. Its robes are widened outwards. The white tracery lacks the inexhaustible wealth of elegant forms known from Gothic, for example that of passports, nuns' heads, fish bladders, rosettes and others. The simple tracery has only three openings, a circle in the center of the arch field, which is followed by three slender openings with pointed round arches at the bottom. The outer ones are slightly higher than the inner ones. The circular opening is enclosed by a slightly raised ring. The elements delimiting and dividing the openings do not have any structures or profiles and merge into one another flush with the surface. Only the circular ring has a slight setback on the inside, which has six flat rounded bulges. The entire tracery is enclosed directly on the window wall by a protruding profile with a rectangular cross-section, the visible edges of which are broken with tiny profiles. It can be assumed that this tracery does not come from the Gothic era, but must be assigned to a recent renovation of inferior quality.
In the center of the triangular gable of the choir, another ox-eye is cut out, the walls of which are flared outwards and surrounded by appropriately cut wedge-shaped stones, the outer sides of which are flush with the surrounding masonry. Compared to this, the white six-sided tracery recedes somewhat, which is additionally decorated with various recesses. This window illuminates the roof space above the choir vault.
The free outer walls of the crypt are exactly below the surfaces of the transept arms, the transept chapels and the choir head. They are broken up by small, slender, arched window openings, usually where the particularly slender windows of the transept chapels and the choir are located above them. In the crypt walls under the gable wall of the southern arm of the transept and under the gable wall of the choir, two such windows are left open; those under the choir wall move very closely together.
Interior
Longhouse
The plan of the church stands on a Latin cross , the post of which forms a three-aisled nave, which is divided into five bays, the third and fourth of which are slightly wider than the others. The first two yokes were created entirely in the style of High Romanesque in the first execution campaign , when early Gothic architecture had already established itself in France . Both yokes have the elevation of a pseudo-basilica, without a windowed upper balcony .
The first yoke of the central nave is vaulted by a two-part pendentive dome , the upper circular section of which is housed at the very top in the base of the bell tower. Its lower section is a hanging dome with an almost square shape. Their gusset-like pendants lead from the circular edge of the upper dome to this square floor plan. Slightly pointed arcade arches were created between the pendants, on the two partition walls and on the west wall they are formed by sharp-edged setbacks of the walls, on the east side by a setback of the edge of the belt arch to the central nave. The edges of these arches meet at the four corner points of the pendentives exactly above the edges of the pier cores and the two wall pillars. The height of these "meeting points" determine the height of the capitals in the central nave of the entire nave, except for the arches of the partition walls. The double round profile of the capitals on old services also enclose these edges.
In the partition walls facing north and south, a small round-arched, sharp-edged opening is recessed in the middle at the level of the pendentives, which leads into the roof space above the aisle vault. Also at the level of the pendentives, a round-arched window is cut out in the center of the west wall, which directly illuminates the dome. Its walls are widened inwards, the edges of which are dissolved into round bar profiles on the sides and top. The parapet is steeply sloping and doubles the room-side height of the window opening due to the great wall thickness. The large main portal opens under this window and is covered by a pointed arch. The reveal edges are broken with strong, sharp-edged setbacks. The arched field above the wooden portal, which is closed by a wooden warrior, is a glazed window with a nine-sided arched edge, which contributes to the exposure of the first yoke.
In the apex of the plastered upper dome there is a circular opening through which the bells can be transported vertically. Eight small round holes are grouped around this opening, through which the bell ropes were presumably passed.
The slightly sharpened wedge arches under the partition walls reach with their outer apexes of the wedge stones up to the height of the capital warriors. Their edges facing the central nave have sharp setbacks. Opposite the other arcades of the partition walls, their arches stand in the first yoke on old services with carved capitals and profiled fighters, on the protruding sides of the pier cores and the flat pillars of the west wall.
The second central nave yoke is covered by a slightly tapered barrel vault, the vault approaches of which are marked with cantilever cornices at the height of the transom plates. The cornice on the south side has a double round profile like the fighters, the north side consists of a single, partially round bar profile. The arcades delimiting the yoke extend with their belt arches below the barrel curve, the barrel-side edges of which are stepped once. The narrower inner parts of the girders stand on old services, which are equipped with figuratively carved capitals and double-round profiled fighters. The outer parts of the belt arches widened towards the barrel stand on the edges of the pier cores. The fighter profiles are guided around these edges. The partition walls, of which only gusset-like remnants and right-angled pillars on the pillar cores are left, are broken through by arcade openings with pointed arches, the outer crowns of which reach the height of the cornice of the vault. The sharp-edged reveals remain without decoration, except for the transom profiles on their reveals, at the level of the arches.
The first two yokes of the aisles are still part of the first execution campaign. The yokes are divided by slender arcade openings, which are covered by pointed round arches, which rest on both sides on flat pillars with a rectangular floor plan. Their arch approaches are marked by double round profiled fighters, which are arranged a little above the fighters of the partition walls. Their arches carry short pieces of wall that reach up to the shield arches of the longitudinal caps of the groin vaults, which cover the aisle yokes. A cross ridge and two shield arches each stand together on a short piece of transom profile on the outer and partition walls, as an extension of the protruding transom. The soffits of the groin vaults are smoothly plastered.
The window already mentioned high up in the west wall of the central nave is joined by three significantly smaller round-arched windows in the side aisles, with widened walls and parapets, one on the north side in the second bay and on the south side in bays one and two.
The third and fourth Langhausjoch belong to the second execution campaign . The main differences to the first two bays are the ribbed vaults and the direct exposure of the central nave through the cliff windows, of which the vaults are the only Gothic style elements. In the third yoke the vault gussets are smoothly plastered, in the fourth they are stone-transparent with dark-colored grouting. The vault ribs have an extremely slim and high cross-section, which consists of an outwardly conical core, the connections to the vault surfaces are accompanied on both sides by slimmer quarter bars and the room-side edge is formed from a somewhat stronger round bar. The shallow depressions created between the round rods have pearl-like, hemispherical elevations at a distance of 20 to 25 centimeters. The main ribs meet in the crown of the vault in a carved round keystone, which slightly exceeds the rib height and is decorated with a rosette. The same type of ribs run along the yoke-dividing belt arches, without edge recesses, but they are divided in half over their entire height. The same applies to the shield arches over the outer walls, but the "pearls" are missing here.
The yoke-dividing belt arches between yoke three and four stand like those between yoke two and three on individual old services, on the pillar cores protruding from the walls. The vault ribs and the half ribs meet with their ends in threes on the sharp edges of the pier cores protruding next to the services. At the height of the arches are the double round profiled fighter plates on the carved capitals of the services, which are also led around the pillar edges. The arch approaches of the arcade openings of the partition walls are again marked by transom profiles, the profile of which, however, is led around the soffit edges.
south aisle from yoke 2
north aisle from yoke 2
north partition, yoke 5
northern partition, yokes 3 u. 2
The pillars following the fourth yoke again have different cross-sections. Here the middle old service is accompanied on both sides by two old services, between which only a narrow edge of the pillar core can be seen. The whole and half ribs of the vault stand on these pillars. However, the pillar capitals and their strut plates are rotated 45 degrees. The capitals show vegetal sculptures.
The partition walls, services, upper storeys and all arches are stone-visible in both yokes, in the third yoke the stones are slurried in a light beige shade. Your joints do not stand out so clearly. In the fourth yoke, the stone surfaces are a little darker and their joints are lighter or darker in color.
The arched upper clad windows are significantly smaller than those in the side aisles and their apexes reach just below the apex of the arched ribs. Its walls and parapets are widened inwards, the edges of which remain without decoration.
The side aisles of yokes three and four are designed similarly to those of the previous one. The almost square opening of the two-wing south portal in yoke three of the side aisle is excluded from this. It is passed by a stilted wedge arch, the closed arch field of which is clearly receding. This arch can be seen on the outside as a relief arch. The ribbed vault in the fourth yoke is stone-visible.
After completion of the second construction phase, the nave was temporarily closed between the fourth and fifth yoke so that the services could be celebrated in it undisturbed by the further construction work. Then the nave of the previous church was demolished, the stone material of which was surely partially reused in the new building.
The following fifth yoke of the nave belongs to the third and final implementation campaign . Its design hardly changes from the previous one. The cross-sections of the vault ribs are different. They consist of two assembled round bars with slightly different diameters, which are separated on both sides by pointed fillets. They don't know the pearl-like decorations on the ribs in yokes three and four.
The slightly wider last wall sections of the partition walls before they merge into the crossing piers are also different.
Capital, tendrils
Capital, foliage
tangled tails
Capital, four-legged friends in tendrils
Transept, its chapels and choir head
Capitals crossing pillars
Reliquary
Bust of saints in niche
Baptismal font
The actual transept is widened on the east side by four chapels of the same height and a choir bay and together with them forms the arms of the Latin cross on which the floor plan of the church stands. The equality of the heights is reminiscent of Gothic hall churches. To the east, two more, less wide, but again equally high yokes of the choir head connect to this choir yoke .
The separated crossing is covered by a slightly rectangular pendentive dome, the upper section of which does not have a circular, but a slightly elliptical outline, with a larger extension in the direction of the transept. The pendentives are four segments of the lower hanging dome, which lead from the elliptical shape of the dome edge to the slightly rectangular shape of the crossing floor plan. The pendentives are supported by the slightly pointed arches of the crossing arcades. Their edges are identical to the edges of the outer wedge arches, which meet exactly over the sharp inside edges of the pier cores and transfer their loads over them. The inner arches of the arcades stand on old services, which are equipped with carved capitals and multi-profiled fighter plates. The capital sculpture and the transom profiles also run around the edges of the pillar cores.
On the outward-facing sides of the crossing piers there are old services again, but the edges of the pillar cores are broken up into young services with their own capitals and fighters. In most of the pillars of the transept, the chapels and the choir head, however, two new services are inserted between the old services, always when cross ribs are to be supported in addition to the edges of the arched setbacks. These bundles of services, between which only a few sections of the pillar cores can be seen, are known as bundle piers .
The four sections of the transept arms, the four of the transept chapels and the three choir bays are all covered with stone-covered cross rib vaults, with rib cross-sections as in the fifth central nave yoke. These vaults are separated from one another by pointed or pointed belt arches, which are, however, much slimmer than in the nave. They are accompanied by vertically halved cross ribs, which also mark the pointed or pointed arches of the outer caps along the walls.
The outer walls of the choir head and those of the transept chapels are divided horizontally across all the pillar bundles at the level of the inner window parapets with a multi-profiled and stepped cornice. The partially round cross-sections of the services are exactly rounded. The lower 15 to 20 centimeters of the services continued above are designed and sculpted as capital friezes, mostly with heads, but also occasionally with plant motifs. The heads could perhaps represent caricatures from the monastic community of that time. They wear plate-shaped head covers at the same height on which the services stand.
In all the outer walls of the transept chapels and the side choir bays two and three, very slim, pointed windows are recessed, the reveals of which are widened inward. The parapets rise on the aforementioned cornice outwards in several steps. The edges of the reveal are broken up into young services, which stand just next to the outer services of the bundle pillars separating the windows. Their sharpened arches remain a bit under the shield arches under the vault gussets. Their capitals and warriors take over the height of the bundle pillars. The parapets of the four windows in the northeast corner between the transept chapels and the head of the choir have been bricked up a good bit later, because a sacristy has been added there in modern times, the upper floor of which is accessed from the second choir bay and one of the inner chapels with a door each.
In the gable walls of the transept arms, just below the slightly sharpened shield arches, a large ox eye is recessed, the opening of which on the room side is enclosed by a circular ring made of double semicircular rod profiles.
North side choir, yokes 1 - 3
Crossing u. north transept arm
north crossing pillar
south transept chapels
Crossing u. south transept arm
Crossing pillar in front of the choir
Pillar south transept and choir
Crossing pillar u. south transept chapel
crypt
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The remains of the completely underground early Romanesque sanctuary , which gave the church and the village its name, are now under the crossing and the front half of the fifth nave yoke, centered exactly on the axis of the church. These are the oldest parts of the building, which probably go back to an old pre-Christian sanctuary. The larger barrel-vaulted section of space under the crossing, about four by seven meters in size, consists of granite masonry, is divided by two arcades with Romanesque round arches, one of which stands on two columns with capitals and fighters, which are reused here by an older building. Exactly below the western arch is a monolithic fountain surround in the shape of a bell and 90 centimeters in diameter. The well has a depth of 9.50 meters. In front of the thick wall that closes off the room, there is a smaller stone circular ring that belongs to another fountain. It is possible that the fountains were visited and venerated in ancient times because of the healing powers of their water that were promised to them. In the blind arcade niche on the west side, a small doorway opens into another barrel-vaulted room in which archaeologists have excavated Gallo-Roman tombs that belonged to a Gallo-Roman necropolis.
In this niche, a Gallo-Roman inscription in capitals was discovered on two adjoining stones:
DIIS MANIBUS NI FILI ITEM PATRIS ITEM ACUS
Fri: Aux dieux Manes nus son fils de même son père de même
Translation attempt: To the gods of the dead, not his sons, nor his father, nor the needle ...
ET MEMORIAE PAULI MAMORIAE PAULI NERTACI AVI NERT VIVUS POS
Fr: et à la mémoire de Pauli à la mémoire de Paulus de Nertacus son grand-père, Neracust a de son vivant élevé ce tombeau
Translation attempt: ... and with the memories of Paul, with the memories of Paulus von Nertacus, his grandfather. Nertacus raised his life in this tomb.
All other structural parts of today's crypt were built together with the first church around the middle of the 11th century, which are still arranged slightly underground due to the steep slope from west to east. The free outer contour corresponds exactly to that of the eastern section of the upper church, from the north-western edge over the entire choir head to the south-western edge of the transept.
The largest room in the crypt is the central chapel under the choir head and is an extension of the old sanctuary. It is also known as the sanctuary, which houses an altar from the 12th century. It is covered by a ribbed vault supported by strong, profiled cross ribs and along the walls by shield arches with a square cross-section. These arches stand in threes on pillars barely 1.50 meters high, from which they are separated by profiled fighters. Four slender, arched windows with walls that expand inward illuminate the room. Its parapets, like those of the windows of the upper church, are graduated several times. In the chancel, a statue of the “black virgin” made of bluish granite is shown, which is said to have once been on the church roof. A paw cross is also on display here, indicating a former connection to the Knights Templar . The chancel is bordered on the west by a wide arcade opening with a pointed, sharp-edged arch that opens into a corridor that separates the chancel from the old sanctuary. At the same time, it provides the connection to the north and south chapels, each via a round arched passage and a small square anteroom.
The northern chapel of St. Anne (fr. Sainte-Anne ) is just below the outer section of the north arm of the transept and its chapel. It is divided by an arcade into two room sections in a ratio of 1: 2, which are covered with ribbed vaults. The chapel of St. Martial (fr. Saint-Martial ) is structured similarly on the south side . Its larger section is slightly wider than that in the northern chapel. This chapel served as a burial place for the monks for a long time. A staircase leads from the vestibule to the south arm of the transept of the upper church. The windows in the outer chapels and in the connecting rooms are similar to those in the chancel.
Gallery crypt
Crypt, sanctuary
Sanctuary with two wells
black madonna
Paw cross
Sources and literature
- Erich Grau, Margit Kilian: The Limousin . Dumont art travel guide. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7701-2732-3 , pp. 27-30.
- French informational texts with pictures posted in the church (without naming the author)
Web links
Coordinates: 46 ° 14 ′ 15.2 " N , 1 ° 29 ′ 10.6" E