Notre-Dame de l'Assomption (Fenioux)
The village church of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption is a Romanesque church building in the small community of Fenioux in the Charente-Maritime department in western France in the old cultural landscape of the Saintonge ; The patron saints of Saint-Savinien and Saint Pierre are also recorded in literature. Fenioux is famous for the two portals of the Romanesque church and the death lantern, which is about 150 meters to the west . The church was already classified as a monument historique in 1840 .
Church building
history
The pilgrimage church goes back to Carolingian origins. Parts of the small quarry stone masonry of the slim choir walls date from the 9th century. It probably belonged to a smaller pre-Romanesque oratorio . Typical of this epoch is the preserved openwork stone "wattle", with which a small arched window in the fifth yoke of the south wall of the ship is closed. But it is not in its original place there.
The early medieval building was converted into a choir in the 12th century and a five-bay nave was added to the west, which was vaulted with a pointed barrel on belt arches . The ship was equipped with a magnificent facade and decorated with sculptures from the High Romanesque . In the same era, the tall bell tower was built, which is placed like a campanile directly next to the south side in the angle between the nave and the choir. At the end of the Middle Ages , the choir was redesigned, for example the interior rounding of the corners of the room, giving the impression of an apse . It is unclear whether the choir was also given a stone vault. A fire destroyed large parts of the stone vaults of the ship, perhaps also the choir, which were later replaced by wooden structures and wooden cladding. The design of the two archivolt portals dates back to the late Romanesque period , possibly even after the mid-twelfth century.
The time did not leave the church's valuable sculptures without a trace. During the wars of religion and the French Revolution in particular , the sculptures and reliefs on the facade were severely damaged, and the heads of many figures were cut off.
The church building
Outer shape
The nave is divided into four bays on the north side by right-angled pillars. On the south side, the pillar templates each consist of a semicircular column, which are accompanied by two narrow services . The bundle of pillars is crowned by capitals carved from plants . Between the second and third yoke there is a caesura due to a double pillar template with a small distance, which perhaps indicates an interruption in the expansion of the ship. The profiled eaves cornices of the ship protrude to the outer edge of the pillars and are supported by carved corbels. Smooth parapets were built on top of it, about 30 cm high on the south side and about twice as high on the north side. The nave is covered by a flat sloping gable roof with red hollow tile roofing , which protrudes slightly over the eaves.
At the south-western corner of the ship, the level of the church floor rises the furthest beyond the adjoining area at almost one meter. The terrain level rises from there to the opposite corner by about 25 cm. It then continues to rise less steeply on both longitudinal walls.
On the south side of the ship, hook-shaped corbels are set in two rows of different heights, the lower ones about half the wall height, the upper ones about three quarters of the wall height. These once carried horizontal beams, which indicates a former extension of a part of the building with a monopitch roof. In the middle of the second yoke a strong buttress was added later, the tip of its steep sloping roof just below this monopitch roof. One thinks of the existence of a cloister or other convent building , about which the sources give no information.
On the north side of the nave in yoke four, in the lower half of the wall, there is an arched window without decorative elements. Immediately next to it, a buttress was added later. On the south side there are two such windows, one each in the last and penultimate yoke.
To the left of and slightly above the window in yoke four is a much smaller round-arched window built into the opening on the outside flush with the surface of a Carolingian “wattle” made of stone. The narrow, profiled strips cross each other, running diagonally, evenly distributed over the entire window surface, and alternately undercut and overlap each other. On the vertical sides they hit a narrow frame and turn in the opposite direction at the same angle. On the left side of the surface, they have curves that curve slightly upwards and alternately downwards. If you follow the path of the belts across all intersections and changes of direction, you will come to an infinite course over the entire window area and come back to the starting point. Diamond-shaped and triangular openings are created between the strips, which filter and dampen the light. With this window grille, one can speak of a masterpiece of early medieval stone carving. It is a valuable remnant of the previous building from the 9th century.
On the north wall, in the middle of the first yoke, just behind the corner of the facade, there is a three-tier archivolt portal with a small single-leaf door, the threshold of which is 70 cm above the site. There must have been stairs or an embankment here. The archivolt arches, which are square in cross-section, are richly decorated on the front and inside with rosette and leaf ornaments, each with its own motif on each individual surface of the wedge stones. The extensive profile band is also decorated with plants. The arches stand on three round smooth pillars, in the spaces between which round supporting profiles are inserted. The capitals, equipped with lush, deeply carved plants, lead from the round shape of the pillars into the rectangular shape of the main plates . These are profiled on the visible edges and again decorated with plants. The two capitals above the central columns show animal figures in this portal alone. They are probably mythical creatures, with bodies of birds, with necks and twisting tails like snakes. The weathering is already well advanced. The profiled round column bases stand on high profiled angular plinths. This combination at the bottom of the columns is about the same height as the capitals with the fighters at their top.
The choir, which is largely a remnant of the Carolingian predecessor structure, has an externally right-angled floor plan made of very slim enclosing walls. The central subdivision of the northern side wall by a buttress and two more at the corners of the choir could indicate a stone vaulting of the choir in the 12th century. The chorus is covered by a flat sloping gable roof, which for the east side hipped is.
The bell tower rises up immediately next to the south wall of the choir. Its northwest corner still stands on the walls of the southeast corner of the ship. The two lower tower floors have square floor plans, which are separated by a slight setback, approximately at the height of the eaves of the ship, which is covered on the top by stone slabs whose right-angled visible edges protrude slightly. With the exception of simple rectangular, slightly protruding pillar templates at the tower corners, which end just below the floor division with steep bevels, the wall surfaces of the ground floor consist of smooth ashlar masonry.
The second floor is barely half as high as the ground floor and ends horizontally at the top with significantly thinner, slightly cantilevered stone slabs. On the four completely free side walls of this storey, two slender blind arcade niches are embedded, which are covered by two semicircular arches made of wedge stones, which are framed by narrow protruding profiles with serrated ornamentation. The arches meet over a round column, which is equipped with a vegetable carved capital, with a profiled spur and base. On the outside, the arches rest on the vertical edges of the recess recesses, separated by profiled transom profiles that extend to the corners of the tower. At the height of the vertical niche, the four corners of the tower are set back at right angles, in which slender round columns are set, with simply designed capitals, profiled spars and bases.
The third floor is almost as high as the second and houses the bell chamber. It has a cylindrical shape, the circular outline of which recedes a little behind the outer edges of the square floor below. On the triangular-like surfaces emerging between the square and the circle, very slender cylindrical turrets are set up, which nestle against the cylinder of the belfry. The lower half a meter of the floor plan, made up of a central circle and four small partial circles, consists in this form of a solid, closed masonry base. Above the four side walls of the tower, there are four large openings in the cylinder of the bell chamber, each of which is framed by an archivolt that fills the entire space between the corner turrets. The semicircular archivolt arch made of wedge stones flush with the wall is covered by a narrow cantilever profile with a serrated ornament. It rests on slim round columns with simple capitals, profiled transoms and bases that are set in soffit setbacks. Recessed biforias (double windows) are inserted into this large opening, consisting of two small arcades , on three slender round pillars, with capitals, battlements and bases, as described above. On the part-circular bases of the corner turrets on the free sides there are four columns each in height, dimension and equipment as with those of the biforias. They support the cylindrical, 30 cm high, upper section of the corner turrets, with a slightly smaller diameter than the base. The cone-shaped, steeply inclined stone spiers on which a scale-like pattern is engraved stand on it. The cylinder on the third floor is closed by a flat cantilever profile.
The fourth and last floor of the bell tower is barely a third as high as the third and consists exclusively of a ring of twenty small open arcades. The wedge arches, flush with the surface, rest on pairs of columns with simple capitals, profiled transoms and bases. This storey is closed on the top with an angular cantilever cornice.
The conical roof of the spire, which is about as steep as that of the corner turrets, is made of stone, on the outside of which the stonemasons have imitated the flaky surface of a shingle roofing. The helmet is crowned by a stone paw cross with a circular ring behind it. The steepness of the conical roofs does not correspond to the sense of proportion in Romanesque architecture. The spiers come from a “reconstruction” by Paul Abadie , a pupil of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc , who are both known for their innocence in dealing with historically significant buildings and who are sometimes criticized as “vandalisme restaurateurs” (restoration vandals).
Interior
The 12th century ship is five bays long. It was originally vaulted by a pointed barrel, which was divided by right-angled belt arches. The only surviving belt arch is the last, immediately before the first and significantly lower to the choir. In this fifth yoke, about half of the complete yoke arch is still preserved. The contour of the vault is initially made a little steeper above the outer walls of the ship, that is, it was elevated until it then merged into the semicircular barrel. This steeper part of the vault in the other yokes of the ship was preserved on both sides of the ship after the vault broke in as a result of a fire. Later the missing parts of the stone vault were replaced by wooden structures with a lower brown board formwork in the former course of the vault.
In bays four and five there are blind arcade niches on the outer walls in the width of the bays and about half the wall depth. The semicircular arches on wedge-shaped stones flush with the wall stand on strong semicircular services, which carry vegetable-carved capitals about halfway up the wall, with profiled fighters. Between yokes four and five, the pillar templates are clad with two semicircular services, which are crowned with vegetable carved capitals and profiled fighters at the height of the vaulting approaches. Above that the former belt bow is missing. Under the preserved belt arch in front of the choir, there are semicircular services as described above, but only individually. Between yokes three and four there is a short but thick piece of semicircular column on a pedestal about one meter high, with a carved capital halfway up the wall. Above it were presumably higher-reaching services with capitals at the level of the former belt arches. There are no blind arcade niches in yokes one to three.
The choir opens from the nave with a " triumphal arch " in the form of a basket arch , which stands on semicircular services with formerly carved capitals and fighters. The originally rectangular room of the Carolingian predecessor building from the 9th century was redesigned into a round apse together with the annex of the nave in the eastern corners of the room with inner walls. This room could possibly have been covered with a stone vault, possibly also with a ribbed vault , of which no remains can be seen today. The ceiling of the choir is now covered with a flat ceiling made of wooden formwork.
Capitals at the choir connection, north wall
Capitals at the choir connection, south wall
The facade and its sculpture
The facade is dominated by the large archivolts portal, the apex of which is just touching a strong, profiled cantilevered cornice, the sloping visible side is adorned with plant ornamentation and divides the facade into two storeys in a two-to-one ratio. Two individual corbels are arranged directly under the cantilevered cornice with sculptures of human faces and ears of cats.
The two storeys are laterally bounded by thick semicircular services, the plant-like capitals with thick, profiled spars that extend to the lower edge of the eaves cornice. These services are interrupted by their own capitals at the level of the archivolt capitals, on which angular warriors with “inverted” profiles lead over to the round column bases. From these pillars, the facade is led around 45 degrees to the side walls of the ship. The kink of the slope in the side wall is marked by a thick semicircular column that extends over the entire height, including the capital. Between the two thick half-columns, five slimmer half-columns are squeezed in without a gap. They have no capitals.
The wall of the upper floor of the facade is clearly receding to about the same depth as the inner archivolt. On both sides of the upper floor, behind the half-pillars that delimit the archivolts field, there are buttress-like wall pieces, angled inwards by 45 degrees in the plan. The lower part of the upper floor is a kind of sculpture frieze, which is bordered on the top by a strongly protruding, profiled and lavishly decorated cornice. The cornice is supported by ten corbels, which are decorated with portraits of people and animals from the real and fantasy world, in the highest quality Romanesque stone carving. The spaces between the corbels are filled with rectangular stones, each with its own plant ornament.
Motifs of the corbels from left to right (presumed interpretation):
- Head of a feline predator, turns left to the other heads
- Human face with plump cheeks and cat ears, frontal view
- Face of a woman, turned slightly to the left
- Cat-like grimace, frontal view
- Head of a devil, frontal view
- Face with human features, but with cat ears, frontal view
- Face of a devil with horns, frontal view
- Animal grimace, frontal view
- Head of a monster, facing the neighbor on his right
- Upper body of an angel with wings, holds his hands at a distance to the side of the head of the human figure below.
Corbels facade, half left
Corbels facade, central
Corbels facade, half right
Corbels facade, right outside
Under the corbels, on the cantilever profile that divides the facade, there are a number of six fully plastic sculptures and a central relief sculpture , which, however, show considerable traces of violent damage and are therefore difficult or difficult to recognize or interpret.
The central relief group shows the upper body of Christ without a head, but can be recognized as such by the still preserved cross nimbus . With his left hand he is holding a book set down on the base and opened to the viewer. Above it, obviously floating freely, the remains of a bird of prey , which is holding a scroll rolled down in its beak . Underneath, you can see a ruffled structure, perhaps representing clouds. The remains of a human person can be seen above the right hand, presumably in a sitting position, with arms pointing downwards and hands resting on the lower legs. Her head is almost completely destroyed and the curls underneath the person cannot be identified. The other people are shown as an upper body with half-thighs. The person on the far left carries a closed book in his left hand. The next person spreads a scroll on their chest. The third person has lost his head and is carrying small objects in his right hand, perhaps keys. To the right of the middle group is another person without a head, with raised hands, the inner surfaces of which are turned towards the viewer. The next person's head and shoulders are missing. The last person on the far right is almost completely preserved. It must be assigned to the corbels arranged centrally above it, with the depiction of an angel holding his hands carefully over his head.
The upper part of the upper floor is the gable field made of smooth ashlar masonry, in the center of which an arched window is cut out. The wedge stones of the arch, as well as the stones of the reveal, are ornamented on the outside with plant rosettes . The semicircular arch is covered by a jagged, ornamented cantilever profile, which bends horizontally on both sides at the level of the arches and extends from there to the delimiting inclined "buttresses". The slightly inclined verges close the top of the gable field with a profile tape. The ridge is crowned by a stone Latin cross on a wider, ornamented base.
Main portal, capitals on the far left
Main portal, capitals on the left inside
Main portal, capitals on the left inside
Main portal, capitals on the far right
The large archivolt portal consists of five archivolt arches, which stand on both sides on nine semicircular services. An archivolt arch is supported on each side by two columns. The outside services are thicker than the others. The capitals and the wide transom profiles are mainly decorated with vegetal decoration. Only the outer and inner capitals are figuratively ornamented, some with the bodies of birds, with snake-like necks and human faces.
The first archivolt arch (counted from the inside out) has an independent, radially arranged plant ornament on each of the vaulted stones on its visible side.
The second archivolt arch has six reliefs depicting virtues and defeating vices. The virtues are represented by upright, nobly dressed female personalities whose heads have been lost through vandalism. Most of them hold an elongated protective shield with their left hand, which is placed on the floor or on the body of the truck. All virtues stand on the miserable twisted or crippled bodies of the vices, mostly in human form. Special features of the individual reliefs are listed below.
- Bottom left: The truck in a clearly human form has spread wings and writhes in agony. His head is impaled head-on by a huge spear. Virtue holds an object, perhaps a cross, in the right upward hand.
- Half-left: Virtue holds a sword with the right, pointing vertically downwards, and with it sticks into the body of probably an animal figure (heavily weathered or damaged).
- Left of center: The sparse remains of the vice suggest a human figure through the shape of the rounded head and that of a hand stretched downwards. Virtue raises its left arm and grasps something indefinable and vanished with its hand.
- Right of center: Virtue raises its right arm and grabs something indefinable and vanished with its hand. In doing so, the hands of the opposing virtues approach. A previously existing central part of the scene may be missing here. The badly disfigured truck has two wings again.
- Half right: The truck lies on its back. The bent legs, with the knees forward, and the left hand firmly grasping the spear, again suggest a human figure. The pointed mouth could belong to an animal. Virtue thrusts a long spear, wielded with the right, towards the head, which it will soon pierce.
- Bottom right: Virtue thrusts its long sword down through the clearly human body of the vice, which writhes in agony.
2. Archivolt arch, virtue u. Vice, half right
2. Archivolt arch, virtue u. Truck, bottom right
3. Archivolt arch, angel lower right
4. Archivolts arch, Kluge Jungfrauen, lower left
4. Archivolts Arch, Foolish Virgin, lower right
The third archivolts arch shows only six angel figures striving towards the Lamb of God in a circular mandorla . Here are some remarks about the individual scenes.
- Bottom left: The lowest angel stands with bare feet on a plinth (cloud?) And turns slightly bent over towards the center. Its wings are raised steeply above the head. With his left hand stretched upwards, he waves a censer . In contrast, his right hand points diagonally downwards.
- Half left: This angel is badly damaged and has neither head nor wings and only fragments of arms. He too seems to have carried a censer. The formerly existing parts of the sculptures are missing on the following two wedge stones of the arch.
- Left of center: This angel, like his counterpart, grasp the circular ring of the mandorla with arms outstretched, his head turned towards the Lamb of God. The angel is missing its feet and almost nothing is left of its wings.
- Right of center: This angel is almost a mirror image of the one opposite. But he still has his feet.
- Half right: This headless angel is slightly bent in the knees and stands with bare feet on a pedestal. Its wings are raised above the head and laid against one another. The structure in front of his body could again be a censer.
- Bottom right: The posture of this angel is similar to the previous one. Its towering wings, however, point slightly outwards. He is clearly waving a censer with his right hand.
The fourth archivolts sheet is about the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. The upper body of Christ, which has the heavenly portals, is placed in the apex of the arch. On his right, four of the wise virgins head towards the open portal, with functioning oil lights pointing upwards. The four foolish virgins, on the other hand, sink into misery on his closed left side and hold down their empty lamps. The heads of the four lowest sculptures have been chopped off. Under the two lower virgins there was still a representation of an upper body on each side, but these are only very incomplete today. Basically the heads are missing. On the right one you can see the forearm stretched forward with an upright hand, the inner surface of which points towards the viewer.
- Signs of the zodiac and images of the month on the 5th archivolts sheet
ACARIVS and PISCES
PISCES and ARIES, monthly picture of February
[A] RIES and TAVRVS and the monthly pictures March and April
GEMINI and the monthly pictures June and July
CANRCER, LEO, monthly picture for July
VIRGO; Monthly pictures July and August
LIBR [A] and SCORPIVS; Monthly pictures August and September
SCORPIVS and SAGIT [ARIVS];
The fifth and last archivolt sheet shows the zodiac with the respective zodiac signs , alternating with the monthly pictures or monthly works. The high reliefs are arranged radially , in contrast to the tangential arrangement of the reliefs on the second to fourth archivolt arches. On the outside of the figurally designed wedge stones is a narrow band of writing with explanatory notes on the representations in Latin epigraphic capitals from the second half of the 12th century. The U is replaced by a V. This outer arch is additionally covered on the outside with a profiled cantilever profile, in the hollow of which the Latin names of the months are engraved over the corresponding monthly work in the same script: IANVARIVS FEBROARIVS MARCIVS ABRELIS MAIVS IVNIVS IVLIVS AVGVSTVS SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER .
In the following some information about the individual representations and scenes, from the bottom left across the entire arch to the bottom right. Here, in particular, the sculptures are exposed to more severe weathering, which is also reflected in the darker patina of the stones.
- Right side of a seated person wearing a fez-like headgear, working an object on his knees.
- Wedge stone with badly damaged sculpture.
- Front view of a seated person with knees wide apart and forearms resting on them, with a capital letter A on his clothing and various ornaments. A pear-shaped object or container lies on the floor in front of him: AQUARIUS (Latin ACARIVS , wrong for AQVARIVS )
- Three elongated structures: FISH (lat., PISCES ) Monthly February
- Person slightly crouched down, hits something with a stick (incomplete). Monthly pages March / April
- Quadrupeds, sheep similarly: ARIES (lat. ARIES )
- Person in thicket is probably harvesting something.
- Four-legged, bull-like: BULL. ( lat.TAVRVS )
- Rider on horseback with a sickle in his right hand. Monthly pages June / July
- Two standing people: TWINS ( lat.GEMINI )
- Standing person, badly damaged. Monthly July
- in the apex: pockets - cancer: KREBS (Latin CANRCER , wrong for CANCER )
- Four-legged friend: LÖWE (lat. LE [O] ). Monthly July
- Couple in affection, heads cut off
- Female person: VIRGIN (lat. VIRGO ). Monthly pages July / August
- "Floating" person with a two-pronged wooden fork
- Seated person in frontal view with a flat object on his knees, writes or reads.
- A person with a missing head leans over a knee-high tub or basket. Monthly pages August / September
- Parts or structures that cannot be defined: SCORPIO (Latin ESCORPIVS , wrong for SCORPIO or SCORPIVS )
- Two wedge stones with destroyed sculpture. Monthly pages October / November / December. SCALE ( lat.LIBRA )
- Archer shortly before the shot: SCHÜTZE (Latin SAGITARIVS instead of SAGITTARIVS )
- Wedge stone with destroyed sculpture.
- Wickerwork trough, above it two heads of cows in frontal view.
- Keilstein with destroyed structure: STEINBOCK ( lat.CABRICOR (NVS) spelling mistake B instead of P)
- Person sitting behind a table in frontal view. Various objects on the table. Monthly December.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Église Notre-Dame, Fenioux in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
literature
- Thorsten Droste : Poitou. Western France between Poitiers and Angoulême - the Atlantic coast from the Loire to the Gironde. DuMont Cologne 1999, pp. 206ff, ISBN 3-7701-4456-2
- François-Xavier Eygun: L'église paroissiale de Fenioux et la lanterne des Morts. In: Session. Congrès archéologique de France Vol. 114 (1956), pp. 304-315
Web links
- http://route-romane.net/default.php?gzev=im_bk_328_2213 (pictures)
- Lanterne des morts (French article about lanterns of the dead)
- http://cfpphr.free.fr/inventaire2.htm (death lanterns in France)
Coordinates: 45 ° 53 ′ 23 " N , 0 ° 35 ′ 46" W.