Prieuré de Saint-Généroux

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The west facade of the former priory church of Saint-Généroux is - with the exception of the bell gable - completely unadorned.

The former priory church Prieuré de Saint-Généroux belonged to the mother monastery of Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes, only 7 kilometers to the east, and is one of the oldest preserved church buildings in Poitou - even before the Notre-Dame de Champdeniers church . During the French Revolution , the church building became the - far too large - parish church of the small town. The church has been classified as a monument historique since 1846 .

Building history

According to tradition, the first church was built over the grave of the monk Generosus, who left the monastery of Saint-Jouin in the 9th century and retired to the forest as a hermit; his relics are venerated in the region to this day. In the 12th century the choir area was partially renewed. In two campaigns in the middle and towards the end of the 19th century, the building was completely restored - especially on the outside; the bell gable was also reconstructed.

architecture

Facade and exterior walls

The completely unadorned west facade has a small portal and a window - both without robes and archivolts . The church's only bell can be found in a two-arched bell gable , which strangely has been extended downwards by another double arched position. It is no longer known whether this condition corresponds to the original condition or is due to the restoration measures of the 19th century. In any case, the outer walls of the nave - especially in the upper zone - have been heavily redesigned and no longer have anything in common with the original or traditional state.

Longhouse

Saint-Généroux - nave

The nave of the church with its high side windows and an open wooden roof truss is considered by some researchers to be an important and almost the only example of late Carolingian architecture in Poitou: Originally - in their opinion - it was a large, single-aisle and arched hall with a transverse three-arched arcade in front of the Choir area, which is opened again in the upper area through smaller arcades. In the 11th and 12th centuries, pillar arcades without capitals - but with simple transom panels - were added in order to achieve the appearance of a basilica, 3-aisled building.

Other researchers, on the other hand, are of the opinion that the entire building, with the exception of the large and vaulted choir chapels, should be attributed to the early 11th century.

Saint-Généroux - choir head

Choir head

The present choir is undoubtedly from the 12th century. It consists of a kind of transept with three vaulted apses , of which the middle one is more elongated and raised compared to the other two - in addition, its lower wall is stabilized by two half-height buttresses . Each of the three apses has an east window; the outer apses each have an additional window on the side. Instead, the central apse has two small round windows ( oculi ), which are rarely found in the Romanesque or early Gothic period - they may have been added in the Renaissance or Baroque or in the 19th century. As with many churches in Poitou, there is no crossing tower towering over everything .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Église, Saint-Généroux 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, ISBN 3-7701-4456-2 , pp. 100f.

Web links

Commons : Prieuré de Saint-Généroux  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 46 ° 53 ′ 1.2 ″  N , 0 ° 8 ′ 16.6 ″  W.