Notre-Dame (Morienval)

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Former Notre-Dame Abbey in Morienval
Choir

The Catholic parish church of Notre-Dame in Morienval , a municipality in the Oise department in the French region of Hauts-de-France , was formerly part of a Benedictine monastery and was probably built in the middle of the 11th century. The church is one of the structures that were included as Monument historique in the list of architectural monuments ( Base Mérimée ) in France as early as 1840 .

history

The former Benedictine Abbey of Morienval was probably founded in the 9th century. In a document from the year 920 donations to the monastery are mentioned, which go back to Charles the Bald . When the church was built is not documented. It is believed that it began in the middle of the 11th century. Between 1075 and 1103 the monastery received the relics of St. Annobert, who was Bishop of Sées in the 7th century . The vestibule tower, at least the upper floors, are dated to the early 12th century. The choir bay was vaulted probably before the middle of the 12th century . In the 13th century a chapel was added to the north transept and the vault of the apse was renewed in the Gothic style. From 1625 major renovations were carried out under the abbess Anne de Foucault. The tower was integrated into the west facade, a large portal was broken through in the north aisle and the central nave was provided with groin vaults. A sacristy was added to the south transept .

In 1745 the abbey was closed and the church became a parish church. In 1878 and from 1900 to 1903 renovations were carried out under the direction of the architect Paul Selmersheim.

architecture

Exterior construction

The church has three towers, two on the side of the choir and a west tower, the so-called vestibule tower. The substructure of the west tower is reinforced at the edges with buttresses . The floor above is pierced by arched sound arcades and twin windows open on all four sides on the top floor . Like the cornice between the two upper floors, the round arches of the windows are decorated with a scroll frieze.

The two towers to the side of the choir head are slimmer than the tower on the west facade and have three upper floors, which are pierced on all sides by round-arched twin windows. The north tower is rectangular, the south tower square. Both towers are crowned by four-sided pyramid roofs.

Only the outer wall of the ambulatory has retained its original decoration from the choir head. It is pierced by four windows, the archivolts of which are decorated with round bars over which a scroll frieze runs. This continues over the entire apse wall and its buttresses , which are rounded at the top .

inner space

inner space

The church is a three-aisled basilica with a vestibule to the west. The nave extends over three yokes that through wide arched arcades are divided. These rest on pillars with column templates that are decorated with capitals . The décor of the capitals shows, in addition to spiral motifs and wickerwork, stylized leaves, human heads and depictions of animals. The motifs and the type of representation are taken from the pre-Romanesque period.

A large triumphal arch , above which five arched arcades are lined up, opens the nave to the crossing and the two transept arms. The adjoining choir yoke is covered with a groin vault from the 12th century. The apse is delimited by four irregular arcades. The outer and the middle left arcade are ogival, the middle right arcade has a round arch. The capitals of the pillars are slimmer than those of the central nave, but have similar motifs such as wickerwork masks, palmettes, rolled leaves, birds and a horse surrounded by foliage.

The ambulatory, which is referred to as a pseudo ambulatory, because it was built for structural reasons and is too narrow for a real ambulatory and also not accessible from the transept arms, has an irregular cross-ribbed vault .

  • Capital in the north aisle

  • Capital in the north aisle

  • Capitals in the ambulatory

  • Capitals in the ambulatory

literature

  • Anne Prache: Romanesque Île-de-France (Paris and surroundings) . Echter Verlag, Würzburg 1987, ISBN 3-429-01029-2 , pp. 91-99.

Web links

Commons : Abbaye de Morienval  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ancienne abbaye in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

Coordinates: 49 ° 17 '53.4 "  N , 2 ° 55' 19.9"  E