Perrecy-les-Forges priory
The former Benedictine priory of Perrecy-les-Forges , of which only the current parish church of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Benoît (Peter and Benedict) and a few monastery buildings have been preserved, is located on the south-eastern edge of the French town of Perrecy-les-Forges , in southern Burgundy in the Saône-et-Loire department , between the forests of the Morvan and the pastures of the Charolais , about 10 km southwest of the industrial city of Montceau-les-Mines , about 20 km northeast of Paray-le-Monial and on the banks of the Oudrache . The priory church rises magnificently above the meadow slope that gently rises towards it and the village. The hilly terrain extends to a height of 264 meters above sea level.
The monastery and its first church were built around the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries and were dedicated to Notre-Dame and Saint-Benoît (Benedict). The oldest parts of today's church and essential parts of the convent buildings were built between 1020 and 1030. A kind of citadel was created . The priory experienced its heyday in the following three centuries.
After a devastating fire in 1500, the monastery recovered. In the 17th century there were again 30 monks living here, and at the beginning of the 18th century the new large house of the prior was built. During the revolution , monastery life was wiped out, the convent buildings were sold for demolition with the exception of a few remains. In addition, the octagonal crossing tower of the church was torn down to a stump and the bells melted down to make cannons.
Of particular importance to art history, the well-preserved largely are tympanum and - Architravskulpturen the main portal and the capitals - and based sculptures of large three-nave and zweijochigen Portal stem in West plant .
history
Origins
The origins of Perrecy seem to go back to a Gallo-Roman domain (French Domaine, Seigneurie ), which bore the name of its landowner, who had settled here on the banks of the Oudrache. His name was Patriciacus , which later became Patriciacum, Perraciacum , today's Perrecy . The place was once on the Roman road from Toulon to Charolles and the Romans and Gauls stopped here on their way to Bibracte , the former capital of the Äduer , or later to Augustodunum , today's Autun .
middle Ages
In the 7th century, the Perrecy domain came under the control of the Bishop of Bourges .
The history of Perrecy was significantly shaped in the 8th century, triggered by the invasion of the Saracens . While Karl Martell (the first Carolingian ) defeated most of the troops near Poitiers in 732 , his brother Hildebrand I defeated the Muslims who had advanced into the Rhone and Saône valleys in 736 . Karl Martell thanked his brother by handing over the Perrecy domain, which he had to cede to the Bourges Cathedral as direct possession. The domain of Perrecy was already considerable at that time, a truly royal gift.
For several generations it remained in the Hildebrand family, the historical Nibelungs , initially under Nibelung I, later as a crown estate under Walter, Nibelung II and Hildebrand III. The latter made special efforts to bring up his children in a manner appropriate to their class. The monastery schools were known for this, especially those of the Benedictine Abbey of Fleury , today's Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire . Ekkard II was brought up there, the future heir of the county, to Pippin I , King of Aquitaine (817-838), who left the estate as an allod . The certificate issued on June 29, 836 in Vouneuil for “his faithful Ekkard” was confirmed by Louis I , the pious, on December 29 in Poitiers. Ekkard already owned huge domains and thus received new goods in the Pagi of Autun, those of Perrecy and Sancenay. Ekkard remained without descendants despite a double marriage.
In January 876 he transferred his property in Perrecy, on which there was already a church dedicated to St. Peter , to the abbey in Fleury where he had studied. He chose this abbey because it was where the bones of St. Benedict were located, near which he wanted to rest after his death. He died between 877 and 880. In his will he had expressly noted that in the event of a Norman invasion via the Loire, the monks of Fleury could flee to Perrecy. Around 880/885 nine monks from Fleury took up this offer for the first time and were probably initially housed in the castle of Perrecy, which stood on the site of the later priory and to which the stair tower at the north corner of the westwork probably belonged.
At the end of the 9th, as well as in the 10th and 11th centuries, the Perrecy Priory and Fleury Abbey received numerous foundations and the mother abbey entrusted the Perrecy prior to the secular and spiritual administration of the property in the pagi of Autun , Mâcon and Chalon . The Perrecy goods thus reached beyond the borders in a document drawn up between 898 and 908:
- to the east between the Périer and Bourbince rivers
- in the south along the Bourbince to the church of St.-Jean an der Arroux (at la Motte Saint-Jean)
- in the west along the Arroux to Toulon
- to the north along the main road from Toulon to Torcy.
The monks built the first church of the priory and dedicated it to Notre-Dame (Maria) and Saint Benedict, and next to her in the southwest the convent buildings. The monastery was mentioned for the first time in 908 in the Kartularium (French Chartulaire ) of Perrecy. There you can read, “that Aymon, the abbot of St. Martin in Autun , the provost of the priory of Perrecy Hersand and the abbot of Fleury Lambertus, the chapel in“ Petra fixa ”(today St. Quentin in the local parish of le Rousset) in Exchange for the Church of St. Didier de Baugy, near Anzy-le-Duc. "
In a document from the 10th century, the widespread goods of the priory are listed in detail, namely from 12 villae (Latin for large estates), 102 mansi (Latin for farms), 7 churches, 4 priories and other goods and income: Man can set the total of all mansi to 150 without forgetting the 9 mills, “cultures”, lands or coloniae , a castle, vineyards, forests and ponds that belonged or were subject to the priory. Most of them were within 30 kilometers of Perrecy.
Under Abbot Gauzlin of Fleury (1004-1029) “Paoul, the prior of the Perrecy monastic community, enriched this monastery with numerous buildings and, as far as the basilica was concerned, he made it more beautiful than ever”. This is undoubtedly the Romanesque church built between 1020 and 1030.
"His successor Wilhelm completes the construction of the guest house, built with lime and sand, so that there is nothing like it in the entire Duchy of Burgundy". Pilgrims traveling in groups or alone were always welcomed and accommodated in it before they left.
The northeastern transept arm collapsed in 1095 and was rebuilt more powerful and solid, as you can still find it today. Inside, he received powerful quarter-round services in the corners of the room , on which the new cross-ridge vault and its angular arches on the walls were supported.
The monastery treasury contained numerous and important relics , such as those of St. Benedict, the confessor of the Eucharius , and Veran and the martyrs Cyprian , Speratus and Pantaleon . Numerous miracles were reported. The reputation that Perrecy enjoyed far beyond the borders of the region attracted large numbers of pilgrims .
Benedict of Nursia
fresco in the Monastery of Subiaco , Umbria, Italy, ca.550
The sarcophagi of Eucharius and Valerius in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias in Trier
Russian icon: Cyprian of Carthage
Perrecy was surrounded by a network of side routes of the movement of the pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela , which flourished in the first half of the 12th century , which significantly increased the number of pilgrims who stayed here. These pilgrimage movements declined in areas north of the Pyrenees after the middle of the 12th century and dried up completely with the wars in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Between 1120 and 1130 the church was extended by a yoke to the northwest and a huge westwork was built in front of the facade . The porch is still considered one of the most original of the Romanesque . The construction work was abruptly interrupted, although the north-western gable and the second tower on the western corner of the westwork were not completed. The cause was probably a lack of funds, as the generous donor of the monastery buildings did not have an equal successor after his death.
For three centuries the priory, fortified like a citadel , flourished and prospered . In 1290 there were 20 monks living in it. Among the monasteries under the Fleury Abbey, Perrecy priory was often named third or even second. In a bull of Pope Paschal II from 1103 it was even ranked first, again temporarily in the 17th century. In the 13th century, a two-bay chapel with ribbed vaults and a rectangular choir apse was added to the gable wall of the north-eastern arm of the transept .
In its heyday, the Perrecy Priory was one of the ten archpriest congregations of the great archdiaconate of the Autun diocese , which comprised 17 parishes .
The monks knew how to use local resources , including the water of the Oudrache. They built a dam wall in the river bed and a dike, between which a pond more than 3000 m long and about 200 m wide was created. The Etang Roussot was initially used for fish farming, which contributed to the nutrition of the local residents. The rules of St. Benedict, however, forbade the monks to eat fish. Later they were used to drive forge hammers (French "les forges", plural = the forge) and bellows, which became common in the High Middle Ages.
According to royal documents from 1324 and 1335, the priory of Perrecy was subject to the king alone and was thus released from any legal status of the County of Charolais, as well as that of the Dukes of Burgundy. His neighbors Paray-le-Monial and Toulon-sur-Arroux enjoyed the same benefits , which has been widely contested. On the other hand, Philippe de Touraine , a son of King John II , confirmed that the fate of Perrecy was entrusted to the officers of the Duchy of Burgundy.
The neighboring domain "la Basse-Cour" (fr. Unterhof) was only separated from the priory by the dammed Roussot pond, and was clearly subject to the protection of Perrecy castle and monastery. In it the servants, their families and their meager property could find protection from invaders and plundering hordes.
In 1423 mercenaries of the Duchy of Burgundy under Captain Perrinet-Gressard defied the attacks of the French crown.
In 1476 the priory became a commander , whose first prior was the Archbishop of Lyon, Charles de Bourbon , who certainly did not live in the monastery community.
Between 1487 and 1491, under Prior Antoine Geoffroy, the originally semicircular Romanesque choir closure and the chapel apses were demolished and replaced by a polygonal Gothic choir head . Likewise, the presumed groin vaults of the choir yoke and those of the flanking chapels were replaced with Gothic ribbed vaults. Prior Anton was succeeded by the famous abbot of Cluny Jacques d'Amboise .
Modern times
In 1500 a large part of the convent building was destroyed by fire. Almost all of the monastery's valuable documents were burned.
On the outer wall of the southwest aisle, four of the six stone consoles can currently be seen, two of which were covered by the buttresses added later . They carried the Gothic ribbed vault of the cloister , which Prior Guillaume Cajot had built from 1543. But it seems that this new building was never completed.
In 1568 the inhabitants of the neighboring town of Romain-sous-Versigny, about 5 km northwest of Perrecy, were exempted from their duty of securing the ford and guarding the priory and castle.
In the course of the 16th century, the north-eastern aisle collapsed with its outer wall and the partition wall to the central nave. The wooden roof and ceiling structures must also have collapsed. As a result, only the former partition wall as a simple, closed outer wall with six small ogival windows and the roof of the central nave were renewed and this nave was covered with a wooden "vault".
At the end of the 16th century the situation of the monastery deteriorated considerably.
The dammed up Roussot pond also provided the drive for the forge founded by the monks in 1634, especially for their forging hammers and bellows, with which the iron ore found on site could be processed. The forge was leased. Cast iron parts were made with two fireplaces, including cannonballs for the navy and smaller tools and equipment such as pans, handle pumps and mission crosses. The importance of this forge can still be recognized today by the addition of -les-Forges (French for forge) to the place name.
In 1666 André Hameau , who had studied at the Sorbonne and was pastor at St. Paul in Paris, became prior of Perrecy. After him, in 1674, it became his nephew Louis Berrier , councilor of the Paris Parliament and Grand Cantor of Notre-Dame in Paris. He resided in Perrecy and was visited there in 1682 by Dom Mabillon , who traveled extensively throughout Burgundy in search of sources for his "Benedictine Annals" . Louis Berrier took his monastic vows in 1697 and donated the large house within the fortress walls , which he had bought in 1682, as well as the salt store and four domains , to the priory . He also named Dijon Hospital as heir in case the monastery was dissolved. He introduced the reform in the spirit of the Trappists of Sept-Fons , as well as strict observance of the rules of St. Benedict.
The good reputation of this wise reformer soon led to 30 monks living in the monastery again. It is thanks to him that a new, large house of the prior was built in the first years of the 18th century, which adjoins the entrance gate and is still used today as a medical center.
The monastery community has always cared about giving alms . Berrier added a pound of bread during Lent in 1709 for all those in need who knocked on the monastery door on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In the Benedictine spirit of “ora et labora” (Latin for pray and work), the monks come together for prayer nine times a day and otherwise work in the fields, in the vegetable and orchard or to maintain the buildings.
Berrier, of the ideas of Jansenism was weighed, called 1713, as some of his French counterpart, a Council in order to discuss these new theories. He was expelled in 1733 by the Bishop of Autun and imprisoned in the Franciscan monastery of Le Donjon in the Allier department . After his death in 1738 at the College of Cluny in Paris, monastic morale deteriorated considerably. The newly appointed Prior of Perrecy and his monks fell out.
The trial brought by Brother Hilarion Villette against his prior Dom Brigaud-Desbrosses for attempted poisoning caused a stir between 1760 and 1764 and ruined the reputation of the monastery, in which only three monks lived. On the occasion of this process, a precise map of the entire priory, with the church, convent buildings and gardens, was drawn up. It is considered to be the only surviving document that has been preserved intact. (see picture)
In 1776 King Louis XVI. the closure of the monastery, in application of a royal edict that called for the abolition of monasteries with fewer than 20 monks. At the end of this procedure, a decree issued by Monseigneur de Marbeuf , Bishop of Autun, in Paris on January 16, 1782 , closes the monastery and grants each of the three last monks a pension of 1500 pounds. The domains of the Berrier donation passed into the possession of the Dijon hospital, the other goods went to the Autun seminary. The monastery buildings, which were in an extremely desolate condition, were released for demolition.
From the creation of the priory to its dissolution in 1782, it directed a total of 59 priors, among which the monks contributed significantly to the development of the region, including the development of handicrafts, trade and many other activities.
The priory church became a parish church, provided that the citizens of Perrecy accepted this within a year. At the same time, an annual sum of £ 300 was made available for the payment of a teacher who was supposed to settle in the village.
In a decree by Monseigneur de Marbeuf of January 25, 1784, a long list of works on the church was drawn up, which the citizens had accepted as their parish church. It was consecrated to Saints Peter and Benedict.
The old church mentioned in Ekkard's will in 876, in the middle of the cemetery on today's Rathausplatz, was about to collapse and was demolished in 1790. A map drawn by Mr. Favre in 1784 at the request of the last prior JD Desgalois depicts the town of Perrecy almost as it appears today. However, at this point in time most of the monastery buildings had already been destroyed, which was recorded by a hand note “où fût le convent” (French for where the monastery was).
During and after the French Revolution of 1789, the property of the clergy was confiscated by the state. The church became the property of the local civil parish. The remaining buildings were auctioned for demolition. Exceptions were the market hall outside the monastery walls, the prison tower, the bakery and the prior's house, which are largely preserved today. At the same time, the revolutionaries tore down the octagonal crossing tower , of which only the current stump remained, and the square stair tower that opened it up above the first yoke of the southeastern choir aisle, which Monseigneur Marbeuf had mentioned in his regulation in 1784. The chapel of St. Benedict on the gable wall of the southwestern arm of the transept was so badly damaged by the falling rubble that it too had to be torn down and the open arm of the transept had to be closed with a new outer wall. Eight bells were removed and melted down to make cannons for the republic.
The “active citizens” of the place met on February 7th and 8th, 1790 in the church and elected the first parish council.
On October 15, 1792, the forge and the large Roussot pond were bought by a Mr. Pierrot , whose family also bought the Gueugnon forge a little later .
In 1862 the church was placed under a preservation order and was extensively restored by the architect Paul Selmersheim before the end of the 19th century . He completed the south-western gable wall and crowned the west tower with today's pointed helmet and above all restored the vestibule to its original splendor. It is now one of the three churches in the Autunois with a three-aisled porch.
Industrialization in the 19th century had fatal consequences for Perrecy's small-scale industry: the forge had to be closed in 1844, the large pond dried up between 1846 and 1848, and pastures were being restored there.
The coal era began in 1880, and three mines were built in Perrecy alone, whose production was stopped again in 1933. Today Perrecy is dominated by agriculture, especially Charolais cattle. There are also some craft shops.
In 1945, at the instigation of Pastor Père Laborier, the central choir window was fitted with a new stained glass in honor of St. Benedict. This was followed by extensive work on and around the church, which was financed by the civil parish with the support of the Monument Protection Office. For example, the wooden vaulted concrete barrel above the nave was renewed, a small museum was set up on the second floor of the westwork, the horticultural design of the former cloister and the monastery buildings, as well as roofing and beautification work on the entire structure of the old house of the prior was carried out.
Priory building
Priory church
Dimensions
In the generally accessible sources there are no dimensions, not even a scale in the floor plan. The only measure can be found in the French Wikipedia article. There the height of the crossing dome is given as 18 meters.
Outward appearance
Longhouse
The church had a three-aisled nave with a basilica elevation until the 16th century . The central nave protruded considerably beyond the two side aisles covered with pent roofs , so that windows could be left out in the upper part of the nave that directly illuminate the central nave. Today only the rebuilt central nave and the south-east side aisle exist, the view of the nave from the south-west largely corresponds to the original condition. The former aisle is missing on the northeast side. The very simple north-east wall of the main nave has only six small pointed arched windows with simple Gothic tracery in the upper area , which are arranged opposite the six round-arched cloister windows of the south-east wall, and a single right-angled buttress , which just reaches two thirds of the wall height. The fact that the nave was extended to the west by a larger yoke between 1120 and 1130 can hardly be seen from the outside. Only the upper clad windows are missing there.
The elongated main nave, between the crossing and the westwork, is covered by a steep pitched roof at 50 degrees . It protrudes a good bit from the eaves and its rafter heads end on horizontal stone cornice panels with a right-angled cross-section. The cornice panels are evenly spaced seven times about 30 to 40 cm wide. Behind the interruptions, the wall is hollowed out to the same width. In the holes are probably the anchors of the steel drawstrings that were required for the barrel-shaped wooden ceiling that was built in 1945. However, it was neglected to close it again. The roof surfaces are covered with small-format, reddish tile shingles, which are supported by wooden formwork.
The southwest side aisle is covered with a pent roof with a significantly lower incline and the same shingles. The eaves consist of protruding rafter heads on which an eaves formwork rests. Probably with the extension of the nave to the north, the outer wall and the roof pitch were increased so that about half of the six upper aisle windows of the main nave had to be bricked up. Today's six small round-arched upper clad windows sit directly on the pent roof ridge and appear very squat due to the short side reveal edges.
The outer wall of the aisle today has four medium-sized, slim, arched windows, the lower edge of which is about half the height of the wall, one of which is in the later extension of the nave. They had three much smaller predecessors elsewhere. Their position can be localized on the inside using plaster cracks. Barely half a meter below the window sills of today's windows, six console stones of the Gothic ribbed vault with stone coats of arms of a new cloister are walled in at a height of two meters , the completion of which is doubted today. Two of them are exactly where the small windows were. However, this means that the console stones were only built in together with the lining of the small windows or afterwards. The rhythm of the console stones also collides with that of today's new windows. After the console stones were attached, three right-angled buttresses with steeply sloping tops were added, which divides the aisle wall into four roughly equal sections, two of which hide the console stones. However, this can only have happened when the construction of the new cloister was finally abandoned. This also applies to the breakout of today's larger window openings. As an extension of the north-western transept wall, a significantly stronger buttress with a completely sloping exterior has been added because the former convent building that was connected here was demolished, which previously had the task of stiffening. At the southwest end of the aisle there is an older portal to the cloister, which is covered by a slightly flattened Romanesque arch, the wall of which was only opened in 1979. The rectangular door at the opposite end of the nave with multi-profiled walls certainly dates from the time the new cloister was planned to be built. This can be recognized by the same coat of arms that are also on the console stones. According to a perspective view showing the situation from 1760, there was a cloister at that time, the monopitch roof of which was directly connected to the eaves of the aisle and thus covered the windows. If the Gothic cloister could not be completed, it may have been a wooden makeshift.
The nave walls from the 11th century - possibly older - and the nave wall, which has been renewed from the rubble after a collapse in the 16th century, composed predominantly of breakage and field stones of different colors and are in an irregular association been walled up. Because of the not very even surfaces of the stone material, such walls have been provided with a light beige colored plaster, which has been stripped and rubbed off over the highest stone elevations. So only the depressions were filled in and stones remained visible either individually or in groups. The edges of the openings and components and the buttresses were mainly made of smooth stone that was weathered gray and always remained stone-visible.
The lack of buttresses on the south-western wall of the central nave and the subsequent addition of buttresses in the outer wall of the aisle suggest that the ships were never covered by stone vaults .
The contrast between the stone-vaulted crossing and the originally vaulted transept arms together with the slender bell tower from the first half of the 11th century compared to the simple, smooth walls of the naves of the first Romanesque church, without stone vaults, without yoke structures and galleries, suggests that that the original nave was the remainder of a Carolingian predecessor building from the late 9th to early 10th century. This assumption agrees with the arrival of the first monks, as well as with their first concern to erect a simple building that later underwent significant renovations in the 11th and 12th centuries, when the Romanesque had fully developed, such as the transept, its crossing and the westwork. It is undoubtedly an interesting hypothesis that should not be neglected .
The church with a shorter nave and a facade without a westwork existed accordingly for at least a hundred years, probably even a good 200 years.
Westwork / portal porch
The three-aisled westwork was built together with the north-west extension of the nave between 1120 and 1130. Outwardly, it is a little wider than the original nave and extends over two bays, a narrower and a significantly wider yoke , on the ground floor and first floor . The upper end of the ground floor is marked on the north-east and north-west side by a cantilevered cornice, made of two round bars and a cove in between . On these sides it is broken through by a total of four arcade openings . The middle of the arcades on the northwest side is significantly higher than the others. All arcades are multi-stepped, starting on the outside with a strong round bar profile, which is decorated with plant ornaments and is accompanied on the outside by a narrow round bar profile. The arcades in the center of the northwest facade and on the northeast side have right-angled arches that stand up on semicircular old services with capitals and bases . In the outer arcades of the north-west facade, the edges of the arches, which stand on pillars, are several times dissolved with profiles and closed with simply profiled fighters.
The second floor in the area of the first yoke is significantly higher than the ground floor. Its four round arched, slender windows on the northwest and northwest sides of the first yoke with slightly sloping walls are almost the same size. The gable wall of the central nave of the westwork is located between the substructures of the towers. It has a verge with an inclination of about 45 degrees and a small, arched, slit-like window under the gable field. Its ridge and that of the gable roof of the first yoke of the portal porch behind it run in the central axis of the central nave of the westwork and nave.
The facade of the westwork shows that it lacks the western tower. The completion of the southwest tower substructure looks extremely unfinished. The northeastern tower substructure is closed on the top by a double-profiled cantilever profile, which is supported by closely placed cantilever consoles that are rounded on the sides and underside like a valley. All three free sides of the westwork have wide rectangular buttresses on the corners of the building and on the axes separating the naves and yokes, the tops of which are strongly sloping. Immediately below the cantilever consoles, between the buttresses, there are small and flat arcatures , each made up of five round-arched blind arcades , the edges of which are resolved with double round bars. The narrow pillars between the arcades have fluting , each with two deep valleys.
The second yoke is covered by a high asymmetrical gable roof. Its ridge is significantly higher than that of the central nave and is clearly offset to the southeast. But it is at the same height as that of the gable roof in the first yoke. The height of its north-western eaves is slightly below half the height of the tower substructure in the first yoke. Its eaves are underpinned by a mighty eaves cornice, the upper half of which has a vertical visible edge and the lower half a wide hollow. A little below this is a window in the second yoke of the second floor of the westwork, the same size and shape as the neighboring window in the first yoke. Not far below, a somewhat larger window of the same shape is cut out over half the height of the ground floor.
The northern tower has two almost square storeys, which are identical to one another and which all end with the same cantilever profile on cantilever brackets as that of the second storey. On each side there are three round arched sound arcades (sound openings) with double archivolts made of angular arcade arches on round pillars, equipped with plant-carved capitals and profiled fighters and bases. The archivolts are separated by deeply fluted wall pillars . On the corners of the tower there are round columns with the same equipment. In total there are 96 such round pillars and 27 wall pillars on this tower. Since the end of the 19th century, the tower has had a pointed Gothic helmet made of a wooden structure with a gray slate covering. Since its floor plan is not quite square, it has a short ridge with two metal tips. The tower originally had a pyramid-shaped helmet with a much lower incline.
The southwest side of the westwork is almost completely closed. Its structure consists mainly of three of the buttresses described above. In the second yoke there is a double round bar cornice above the second floor and a small rectangular window just above it. On the free southeast side of the westwork, a right-angled window is cut out in the southwest area on the second floor and a smaller window is cut out a little closer to the center on the next floor.
A stately round stair tower is added to the east corner of the westwork, which opens up the large second westwork storey, from which one can get further into the bell tower. It has slit-like loopholes distributed all around. Since it was originally possible to get into the stair tower from the former north-western aisle, after its collapse a small building was erected in the corner of the building between the nave and the westwork, which ensured protected inner access. The second floor of the westwork, together with this stair tower, was possibly one of the safest places in the priory to retreat to in the event of a defense. The stair tower is one of the oldest parts of the church (see floor plan). At this stage the nave did not reach this tower, which stood isolated like a campanile . It remains unclear which building he originally developed. Possibly it belonged to an older castle, which is mentioned under History, Middle Ages, 4th paragraph. The remainder of a wall at the foot of the stair tower could also be counted among them.
The masonry of the visible sides of the northwest facade, the northeast side in the area of the first yoke and all sides of the tower consists of large-format smooth stone, in neatly joined ashlar masonry . The originally light orange color of the stone, which has turned gray over the centuries due to weathering, can still be seen in the hardly weathered places. The walls of the Southwest side, the south side, the northeast side of the second yoke and the stairs tower consist of hammer right trimmed breakage and field stones of different color, which largely in regular layers association are brick. Their opening and component edges and their buttresses are made of smooth stone as on the front.
Transept with a former crossing tower
The original shape of the transept can still be seen on the north-eastern crossing arm, which is built on an almost square floor plan with almost the same outline as the adjoining crossing. The current building is an early renovation from 1095 after a previous collapse. It is covered by a gable roof with an incline of about 30 degrees, the ridge of which runs across the ships. The eaves take over the eaves height of the main nave. They have a small overhang on an angular eaves cornice. The roofing consists of red hollow bricks in Roman format, also called monk-nun bricks. The gable wall of the transept arm protrudes a little beyond the roof surface and is also covered with hollow bricks. Its corners are stiffened with two buttresses that are right-angled in the ground plan and with their steeply sloping upper sides end well below the eaves height. In the three outer walls of the transept arm, two medium-sized, slender and arched windows are cut out in the upper wall area. The contours of the former outer transept chapel can be seen on the southeast wall. On the opposite north-west wall, the contours of the passage from the former north-east side aisle into the transept, which was walled up in the 16th century, can be seen. A round arched wall niche was created about two meters above the ground.
A chapel was added to the gable of this arm of the transept in the 13th century. It stands on a right-angled floor plan, the length of which corresponds to the width of the transept, and is on average barely half as high as the transept arm. Your gable roof has a slope of 40 degrees and is covered with red tile shingles. Their eaves are designed with protruding rafter heads. A right-angled choir niche is added on the southeast side. On the gable wall of the chapel there is a rectangular buttress on each side with a steeply sloping top that extends up to the height of the eaves. In the middle of this wall there is a round arched door, which is flanked slightly above by two small round arched windows. The door was the closest access to the then cemetery near the choir. On the south-west side of the chapel and in its choir niche, a small round-arched window is left open.
From the outside nothing of the former southwestern arm of the transept can be seen, except for a section of the former transept chapel apse and a brickwork approach to the southwestern wall above the aisle roof. When the crossing tower was torn down during the revolution in 1789 or a little later, the upper components with the roof, the gable wall and half of the chapel apse of the transept arm also collapsed due to falling rubble. Instead of restoring the arm of the transept, a new outer wall and a piece of monopitch roof were inserted into the resulting gap as an extension of the southwestern aisle. The wall received a round-arched window in the manner of the aisle window. During this action, the twin arcade in the south-western crossing wall had to be bricked up, half of the contours of which protrude over the pent roof ridge today.
The outer walls of the square crossing, as the base of the former octagonal bell tower, protrude well beyond the roofs of the roofs of the central nave and the choir. Just below its upper edge, a slender, arched window was originally cut out in the middle of each side. By increasing the originally flatter roof slopes of the central nave and choir, the window is completely covered on the southwest side and except for a small part on the northeast side. On this basis, the octagonal base of the tower with a height of two meters has been preserved. The side walls of the crossing merge into four sides of the base flush with the surface. This creates triangular surfaces at the corners of the crossing square, which are covered with flat sloping roofs. The otherwise closed base has a door opening on the east side of the octagon, which was probably the entrance to the former bell tower. The opening suggests that the square stair tower mentioned in a document from 1784 was located opposite this corner. The misshapen stump that emerged after the tower was demolished was covered with a flat inclined octagonal pyramid roof, which, like the triangles mentioned above, is covered with gray slate.
One can only speculate about the appearance of the former tower, which was built between 1020 and 1030. On the preserved, closed octagonal base, probably one or two storeys of the same outline rose up, separated from each other and closed on the top with profiled cantilever cornices. In each of the eight side walls and on each floor there were presumably twin arches on pillars with capitals, fighters and bases, in each of which two round-arched sound openings were recessed. The tower was originally - as usual in the Romanesque - probably covered with a helmet in the form of an octagonal pyramid with a medium slope. This was probably - as so often in the Gothic era - exchanged for a much more pointed helmet.
The masonry of the north-east transept arm and its chapel extension, as well as the subsequent closure of the south-west transept arm, is very similar to that of the nave, including its partial plastering. In contrast, the masonry of the square crossing and the octagonal tower stump can be compared with that of the walls of the westwork in the second yoke.
Choir head
The head of the choir consists essentially of a nearly square choir bay in the extension of the crossing, which is flanked by two side aisles, and a polygonal apse , which was built from 1487 to 1491 mainly in Gothic style elements, some of which were also rebuilt. Older components have been integrated into the choir bay and the choir aisles. The walls of the choir bay and apse reach below the eaves, which is at the same height as that of the central nave. They are completed on the top with a strong eaves cornice, the visible edge of which is bevelled and profiled several times. Above that, the rafter heads protrude slightly and are planked on the top with wooden formwork that covers the entire roof, which is covered with red tile shingles. The saddle roof over the choir bay is closed off by a half-octagonal pyramid roof over the apse and has the inclination and height of the central nave.
On all four corners of the polygonal apse there are wide projecting, right-angled buttresses with about 45 degrees beveled tops that reach just below the eaves. The free walls of the apse and its buttresses are divided at a height of a good three meters by a wide, horizontal cantilever profile. The walls stand on a base made of dark basalt , which is steeply sloping downwards. Immediately on the cantilever profile, between the buttresses, there are large-format, slender, Gothic lancet-arched windows, the apex of which ends about half a meter below the eaves. The middle window is significantly wider than the others. They are framed by a profile with a wide hollow and are divided into two sections by slender, profiled supports, and three sections for the central window. Its arched area is adorned with late Gothic tracery in the flamboyant style. The windows in the two side walls of the choir bay are designed in exactly the same way, but only the upper third of them consists of the same tracery that remains visible. Both windows are blindly closed. The one on the southeast side is covered by today's monopitch roof of the choir aisle, except for a small part of the top. Today's polygonal choir apse had a Romanesque predecessor in the form of a semicircular apse.
The two right-angled side aisles flanking the choir bay are as long as the choir bay and as wide as the south-eastern side aisle. They already existed in the original building, but they each had a small semicircular apse on their southeast side. You can still see the contours of the apses, which were formerly vaulted with a dome in the form of a domed cap, in the openings that are now walled up . A medium-sized ogival window is cut out in the wall, from which one can see the remains of the Gothic tracery. It is blindly closed today. The two yokes of the northeastern choir aisle are covered with two pent roofs at slightly different inclinations at 30 degrees, the eaves of which consist of protruding rafter heads and which are covered with dark tile shingles. In the second yoke in the north-east wall there is a window cut out like the one in the brickwork at the top. However, it is fully functional. The southwestern choir aisle was probably extended by a side niche in the course of repairs after the revolution and provided with a significantly steeper pent roof, which almost completely closes the window in the choir bay. It is also covered with red brick shingles and the eaves consist of protruding rafter heads. The niche received an ogival window, which is framed by an ogival archivolt, the components of which do not match the opening and presumably come from another location and were not used again here with great success.
The masonry of the walls of the choir above its annexes, the apse above its horizontal cantilever profile and that of the buttresses are made of large-format, light beige to yellowish smooth stone blocks, some of which have turned gray due to weathering. The walls of the chapels flanking the choir and the lower wall area of the apse are made of quarry stone masonry similar to that of the nave.
Interior of the priory church
The architecture of the portal porch open on both sides is also included in the interior.
Longhouse
The formerly three-aisled nave had a basilica elevation with a significantly higher central nave, which was directly exposed through the cliff windows. It was originally a yoke shorter than the current one. It should come from the former first Romanesque church, which is dated between 1020 and 1030. Its well-known appearance and the lack of stone vaults give rise to the assumption that the original nave could have been the remainder of a Carolingian predecessor from the late 9th to early 10th centuries. (see section: external appearance / nave / last paragraph).
The nave extension is dated to the same period as the construction of the westwork. However, the facade of the nave, which is 100 to 200 years older, was probably only demolished when the westwork was almost complete and then the gap between the two building sections was closed. As a result, the church space was available for the celebration of services for as long as possible, undisturbed by the construction work on the westwork.
The oldest remaining parts of the original nave are the partition wall to the southwestern aisle and its outer wall, without its northwestern extension. The only subdivision of the partition wall is six relatively small arcades, to which a significantly larger one was added in the western extension. The apex of the arch is approximately level with the apex of the arch field above the neighboring main portal. The older arcades have simple, angular, semicircular arches that stand on rectangular pillars. On the arcade embrasures, at the height of the arch base, a good two meters above the ground, protrude strong transom profiles, the lower halves of the outer sides of which are beveled and grooved. The wall also has six arched windows, exactly above the six older arcades. In addition to the semicircular arches, the window openings have only short reveal edges. The reveals of the squat-looking opening are slightly widened inwards on the sides and above, but bevelled very steeply below. Seen from the interior, this makes the windows appear slim and normal again. The originally higher windows were later walled up around this bevel when the roof of the aisle was raised. The partition wall is closed on the top a good distance above the apex of the windows by a strong, wide cantilevered cornice, the visible edge of which is broken up with a broad semicircular profile at the top and a few narrow bars and valleys below.
It can be assumed that the opposite partition of the main nave looked the same until the 16th century. After the collapse of the northeast side aisle and its partition wall, today's outer wall of today's central nave was built in its place. Instead of the round-arched windows, six small, pointed-arched windows have been cut out slightly deeper than on the opposite wall and decorated with simple Gothic tracery. The ceilings of the ships were probably also horizontal wooden beam ceilings in the central nave. The current barrel-shaped wooden ceiling with six iron drawstrings was renewed in 1945. Since the ceiling and the roof of the central nave must have collapsed with the collapse of the two aisle walls, one can assume that the first wooden vaulting also took place in the 16th century.
A large arcade with a slightly stilted round arch is cut out in the head wall to the crossing. The profiled fighter profiles are approximately at the level of the southeastern archivolt apex of the partition. Just above the arch stones of the triumphal arch, a round-arched twin breakthrough is cut out, the arches of which stand up in the middle on a column and on the outside on the soffits. The pillars are each equipped with a simple capital, a widely projecting profiled transom and a profiled base. Transom profiles protrude from the arches on the side reveals.
In the center of the wall facing the westwork is the right-angled main portal, which is covered by a stilted arch field with a smooth surface. This is enclosed by a much larger blind arcade, almost the width of the central nave.
The walls of the nave, including the soffits of the windows and side arcades, are clad with slightly uneven plaster. The edges of the openings in the crossing wall and some of the pillars of the partition wall are made of smooth stone.
The cross-section of the “wooden vault” of the former central nave has the shape of a high arched arch. The aisle is covered with a horizontal wooden beam ceiling, which is clad on the underside with wooden formwork.
Westwork / portal porch
The first floor of the porch has three naves and two yokes. Five smaller side and central nave bays are grouped like a corridor around the large central second central nave bay in front of the main portal. The vaults of the outer yoke sections have approximately the same heights as one another. The central yoke section, on the other hand, is considerably higher and its arch extends far up into the second floor.
The first two slightly rectangular aisle bays are covered with groin vaults, which have a circular passage in the center, which was intended for the transport of the bells. The shield arches on all sides are mainly formed from double round bars, sometimes also from simple square profiles. The first pronounced rectangular central nave yoke is also covered by a groin vault, which is framed by the same shield arches. The two second rectangular aisle bays are vaulted by barrels that are stretched lengthways. The short sides of the rectangle are each connected with a slightly pointed needle cap . The shield arches again correspond to the others.
In the second, almost square central nave yoke, there is a horizontal cantilevered cornice with a triple profile directly above the apex of the outer profiles of the arcade arches. On each side there is a semicircular shield arch made of a strong inner round bar with an angular, narrow outer companion. The edges of the large groin vault rest on them. In each of the shield arches there is a triple-bladed signature, made from a larger archivolt in the middle and two half-sized ones on each side. Your arch stones are just touching the shield arches. The arches stand on four uniformly large columns, equipped with simple leaf capitals, massive profiled fighters and profiled bases. The gussets between the shield arches, the side columns and the blind arcade arches are lined with the arch stones flush with the surface. In the wall behind the pillars, a round arched window opening is recessed within the central archivolt, with simple transom profiles at their arches. The opening to the nave is walled up at the back, the other three windows open into the second floor of the westwork. In the event of a defense, the main portal could be optimally monitored from up there.
The four strong, freestanding bundle pillars around the first central nave yoke have predominantly cruciform, but also partly square cores. In front of the sides of the cores, which do not face outwards, there are old semicircular services, which are crowned by capitals with predominantly figural sculptures of the highest artistic quality (see separate article section). On the capitals and the core edges, there are powerful transom plates, the visible sides of which are profiled in many steps. Most of the strong column bases also have artistic sculptures, mostly in the form of simple leaves and tendrils. The semicircular bases stand on rectangular plinths of the same thickness : Underneath them, a good half a meter high plinth cantilevers on all sides, including under the edges of the cores, with slightly beveled tops. The bundles of pillars on closed walls, or at their ends, consist of only one or two wall pillars, with the same number of services with the equipment described above. Strong, rectangular, semicircular and slightly stilted arcade arches, which separate the yokes and naves from each other, stand on the mullion plates of the capitals. They are accompanied by the aforementioned arches of the vaults.
The main portal is the dominant element of the entire porch, on which the artistic beauty unfolds in full power, severity and a certain coarseness of the patterns. The facade wall of the nave in the width of the central nave of the vestibule can be divided into three vertical sections. The lower section ends at the level of the upper edges of the adjacent striker plates. It is exactly at this height that the striker plates of the single-level portal archivolt and the upper edge of the portal door opening end. The middle section begins with the monolithic, lavishly carved architrave and its lateral protruding extensions. This is followed by the semicircular carved tympanum , and further a series of archivolt arches with different profiles and widths, but only slightly graded. The apex of the outer one hits the cornice described above. The third and uppermost section above the portal consists of one of the four arches of the vault with triple sarkatures, which are also described above.
The round archivolt columns stand freely in recesses in the wall. The inner side reveals of the portal protrude slightly inward from these columns. There are two capitals each above the reveals and the columns. The inner and more slender capitals are a little behind the outer ones. The overlying transom plate also moves the capitals backwards and extends up to the outer wall of the central nave. It is the same thickness as the rest of the vestibule and has a similar profile. The two pillars are equipped with sculpted bases that stand on thick rectangular plinths. The architrave of equal width lies exactly above the portal embrasures, which then protrudes outward with the transom plates and ends at the ends with the extensions of the outer arch. The semicircular tympanum is flush with the surface of the architrave. It is framed directly by an egg bar profile , followed by a strong round bar, a narrow groove and two narrow round bars. The two following arches stand immediately next to the outer capitals on the remaining piece of wall. The first and widest is made of large-format arched blocks with smooth surfaces. The next and outermost arch consists of two round bars that are separated by a groove of the same width.
The sophisticated architecture of the westwork, its robust balance, the cross-shaped pillar cores with upstream services, such as the style of its capitals and bases, can not deny their origins in nearby Brionnais .
The figural sculpture of the main portal is the absolute artistic highlight of the priory church (see separate article section).
The walls of the west aisles to the nave are bricked up to their dividing arches with smooth stone and each have a small rectangular door to the two former nave aisles.
The stones within the porch have different colors, in which a light orange dominates in various shades, up to gray surfaces of different brightness.
The second floor is reached via the spiral staircase in the defensive-looking round stair tower on the east corner of the westwork. The floor plan is structured similarly to that of the ground floor. Above the almost square second central nave yoke, its walls protrude far up and hide its vault. In the middle of these walls, arched windows are cut out, through which one can look into the ground floor and the area in front of the main portal. The yoke sections are grouped around this central area in the form of a walkway.
Transept with crossing
The almost square crossing has the same arcade passage on all four sides and the twin passage just above it, as described in the interior / nave section. The twin passage on the southwest side was bricked up on the outside after 1790. A vertex height of 18 meters is specified for the octagonal crossing dome. Their shape is very similar to a trumpet dome , which is increased a little by an octagonal drum . However, it lacks the actual vault gussets in the form of half hollow cones, which are known as trumpets. Instead of these trumpets, only their straight upper side has been spread into the corners of the upper crossing as a slender, brick-built beam with an arched underside, and then a piece of the vertical wall of the drum has been built up. Above this, the curvature of the triangular surfaces of the octagonal dome begins seamlessly. Open triangular shafts remain where the actual trumpets belong, into which one can look up from below. The bells may have been transported through it, as the otherwise usual circular opening in the center of the dome is missing. Approximately at the level of the lower edge of the drum is the center of the round arched, slim window that originally existed on all four sides of the upper crossing. Their inner reveals are also available four times. Due to a later increase in the roof pitch of the central nave and choir, the north-western window had to be completely walled up on the outside; a short upper section of the south-eastern part could still be preserved. The walls and vaulting of the crossing are mostly plastered, from the height of the arcade warriors to just below the upper windows in a light gray color, above them in white. In these plastered areas, a number of stones with rectangular holes are walled in, for the attachment of scaffolding beams. The pillars, opening edges and the four arches under the drum sides are made of smooth, stone-clear stone in a light orange tint. The eastern pillar was probably renewed with the Gothic design of the choir and has the same yellowish color.
The north-eastern arm of the transept has largely retained its original appearance. It was renewed in 1095 after a collapse, probably in almost the same form. Since the durability of the stability was doubted, the four corners of the room were stiffened with mighty columns with a quarter-circle cross-section, which reach up to the height of the window sill of the twin opening in the crossing wall. They carry the large groin vault, whose ridges and angular shield arches stand on them. The former arched openings to the former transept chapel were bricked up in the 15th century and that to the former north-eastern aisle in the 16th century. A small round-arched niche is set into the last brickwork, as can also be found on the outside. In the three outer walls of the transept arm, two large round-arched windows are cut out, which are so high that they cut straight into the shield arches of the vault. The transept arms, which were formerly identical to one another, were well lit for Romanesque conditions and conveyed a lot of light through the large openings in the crossing walls. The walls, round pillars and the vault of the northwestern arm of the transept are plastered in light beige and painted in light clay with a joint structure of masonry.
A rectangular chapel was added to the gable wall of the north-eastern arm of the transept in the 13th century; its length corresponds to the width of the transept arm. It is divided into two equal yokes by a belt arch and a rectangular apse adjoins its northeast side. A small arched door provided a short walk to the cemetery near the choir. The chapel is illuminated by four small arched windows.
The remnant of the southwestern arm of the transept, which corresponded to the northeastern one, is actually no longer, but rather an extension of the adjoining aisle. It no longer has the original height of the former vault and hardly conveys light into the crossing. The new outer wall as an extension of the aisle outer wall, with a round arched window and the flat wooden beam ceiling just above the apex of the arcade, were created after the collapse of the transept arm in 1790.
Priory church, north-east transept arm from crossing
Priory Church, crossing, north corner
Priory Church, crossing, east corner
Priory Church, north-eastern crossing wall
Choir head
The choir head is largely a late Gothic creation from the years 1487 to 1491, using the oldest components. Before that time it consisted of an almost square choir bay, which was flanked by two side aisles and had three semicircular apses on the head sides, which were vaulted with semi-domed domes. The apses were demolished beforehand and the resulting arched openings in the head walls of the choir aisles were walled up. The side walls of the choir bay were only renewed in the upper areas and an apse was added to the top of the whole width on the plan of a half octagon. The choir bay is covered with a six-part cross - ribbed vault with slender, profiled ribs to which a three-part cross-ribbed vault connects to the polygonal apse with the same ribs. Both vaults are separated by a stronger belt that has a rib-like profile. Both vaults are closed by keystones that are decorated with coats of arms. The cross ribs, profiled shield arches and the belt stand on young semicircular services, into which they merge seamlessly and without capitals. In each of the three sides of the apse, large, slender, ogival windows are recessed, which are framed by a profile with a wide hollow and the apex of which almost touch the arches of the vault. The middle window is wider than the others and is vertically divided into three, while the neighboring windows are divided into two. The arched fields are decorated with late Gothic tracery in the flamboyant style. The windows in the two side walls of the choir bay are designed in exactly the same way, but only in the height and shape of the upper third, with the same tracery that has remained visible as in the exterior view. Both windows are blindly closed. The walls of the choir and the apse are plastered and colored in a pale yellowish tint.
The two choir aisles are as long as the choir bay and as wide as each of the two former aisles of the nave. Its walls consist largely of parts of the original structure. But they were redesigned in the course of the Gothicization of the choir head. They still have the original subdivision into two square yokes by a right-angled semicircular, slightly stilted belt arch on wall pillars, which are divided among themselves by profiled fighters. Instead of the former groin vaults, the yokes were retrofitted with four-part Gothic ribbed vaults. These are delicately profiled and stand on cantilever brackets in the corners of the room. The round keystones are simply decorated. The ribs have polychrome frames in strong colors. The vault gussets are held in a strong blue and there are peeled off areas that have been painted with red bricks. On the front of the aisles, you can also see the arched contours of the former chapel apses inside. Medium-sized pointed arched windows with Gothic tracery were cut into the later brickwork. About the same windows were built into the side walls of the second bay, in the south-eastern aisle in the wall of the rectangular niche built there. At least the walls of the north-western aisle of the choir are in a desolate condition; their plaster has been almost completely removed.
The side aisles of the choir are accessed from the transept arms with round arched openings with profiled transoms in the soffits. The first yokes are also connected to the choir yoke through such openings. The second yoke of the north-eastern aisle is also in contact with the choir bay, through round-arched twin openings, which, however, are blocked on the choir side by the choir stalls.
The layout of the side aisles that accompany the choir yoke is very reminiscent of the first yoke or yokes of an ambulatory choir , which was well known to the builders of the early Romanesque period and was particularly important for pilgrimage churches. Perhaps the builders of this church already had a later expansion of such a choir with contact in mind.
Former priory site and building around 1760
The numbers in brackets, such as ( 39 ), refer to those on the site plan. The numbers 1 to 38 and their meaning are also included in the French list of the site plan. An asterisk, for example ( 39 * ), means that the building has largely been preserved. The meanings of some of the rooms shown are not known. The names of most of the rooms on the upper floors and the basement are also missing.
The site of the former priory had roughly the shape of a mirror-image letter L . The “foot” of the L essentially contains the Great Garden ( 42 ), an orchard ( 44 ), and a swampy area ( 45 ) with a canal ( 46 ). It was enclosed on three sides in the north-west, south-west and south-east by straight walls that were almost at right angles to each other and were accompanied on the outside by paths.
The large garden with a fountain in its center is now the extensive meadow slope that extends south to southwest of the choir head of the church. The eastern corner of the Roussot pond ( 41 ), which was allowed to dry up at the end of the 19th century, extended at an almost right angle to the L , whose south- eastern bank is bordered by the Chaussée de l'Étang Roussot and its north- eastern bank by a dike ( 34 ) were. The vertical part of the L contains the abbey buildings with their courtyards, which extended to the south-west and north-west of the priory church ( 39 * ). To the northeast and southeast of the church stretched a large orchard ( 44 ), a tree nursery ( 36 ) and a cemetery ( 40 ) in the immediate vicinity of the choir head. This part of the property was also surrounded by walls, a dike and various buildings.
In its center, the priory church dominated, the axis of which is oriented almost exactly from the southeast to the northwest. Your west work is actually a "north-west work". In 1760 it consisted of two naves of the originally three-aisled nave, a pronounced transept with an octagonal crossing bell tower, the helmet of which was steeply pointed, a three-aisled choir and a three-aisled unfinished westwork with only one bell tower, covered with a flat inclined helmet. The crossing tower was accessed from a separate stair tower ( 31 ), the westwork from a round stair tower ( 33 * ), with access via a small extension ( 32 * ). The main portal of the church is opposite the access stairs ( 5 * ) that lead down into the porch.
The cloister ( 20 ) immediately adjoined the southwest side of the nave, which was to be covered over with a Gothic ribbed vault in the meantime. Its north-western gallery was one yoke shorter than the gallery opposite and accordingly had a polygonal floor plan, the galleries of which were covered with pent roofs. The pent roof area of the north-eastern gallery directly adjoined the eaves of the aisle. Parallel to the north-west gallery, a presumably open vestibule ( 8 ) with the entrances to the monastery and stairs to the guest house ( 9 ) followed along its entire length . This guest house was connected to the south-west wing of the convent building parallel to the south-west gallery. First a tower-like building ( 13 ) followed, to the upper floors of which the dormitory was housed an attached square stair tower. In the last section of this wing, the chapter house ( 11 ) was housed on the ground floor . The south-east wing of the convent building was attached to the outer wall of the south-east gallery and the gable of the south-west arm of the transept, initially with the consulting room ( 29 ), followed by the cheese dairy ( 30 ). In the angle between the south-western arm of the transept and the choir aisle, another building is mentioned that could also have been the base of the stair tower to the crossing tower ( 31 ).
The right-angled building attached to it is referred to as the “remnant of an old chapel” ( 28 ). To the southwest of buildings 28 and 30 there was a right-angled "small courtyard". It was also surrounded - clockwise - by the gardener's room ( 27 ), the warming room ( 22 ), a common room ( 23 ), the rooms for the blacksmiths and painters ( 25 ), the square stair tower to the sickroom ( 21 ), the refectory ( 17 ) and the former kitchen ( 18 ). The latrine building ( 24 ) was attached to the outer wall facing the pond . The northern corner of the refectory butted against the southern corner of the chapter house, thus closing off the surrounding buildings of the Kleiner Hof. It has access to the garden ( 26 ) on the southeast side . As an extension of the south-east gallery of the cloister, there was a covered corridor over to the refectory. As an extension of the south-western outer wall of the refectory, the outer walls of other significantly narrower convent buildings were connected in a roughly straight line. Between them and the south-west wing there was a narrow courtyard widened to the north-west. Starting with the servants' room ( 19 ), the kitchen ( 16 ), the pantry ( 15 ) and a room ( 14 ) followed. This was directly connected to a round former watchtower ( 34 ), possibly a relic of the old castle. A small building, the milk cellar (20), was inserted in the aforementioned courtyard, in which there was a wooden barn and a wooden shed ( 12 ). The courtyard was closed off by a wall.
In a north-easterly to westerly direction to the westwork, further monastery buildings, some of which have been preserved, lined the property boundary at a somewhat greater distance. The large courtyard in the west of the property was delimited on its southwest side by the dike of the pond and on the northwest side by a wall and a building section, to the northeastern neighboring courtyard also by a wall, in the middle of which a door connected the courtyards with one another. The courtyard evidently served as an outlet for free-range poultry and other small animals. The chicken coop ( 35 ) was right in the middle . The former bakery and the prison tower ( 4 * ) are still located in the north corner . In the north of the westwork was the so-called “First Courtyard”, on the northern border of which a closed development was built. A narrow, elongated building was attached to the prison tower and housed the horse stable and a barn ( 3 ). The large prior ( 2 * ) house, renovated at the beginning of the 18th century , is now used as a medical center. On the site plan from 1760, the portal and the entrance to the priory ( 1 * ) are only indicated as an archway and not as a portal tower as we know it today. On a drawing of the abbey on an information board, which is supposed to show the state of 1760 in perspective, the entrance is recorded like today's portal tower. The importance of the adjoining building is not known. This building and the westwork were connected to one another by a wall that separated the first courtyard from the orchard. The wash house ( 37 ) was connected to it.
Outside the priory property in front of the entrance portal stood the elongated market hall ( 38 ) in a village square , in which the monks could offer the villagers the products of their agriculture, gardens and the pond.
Sculpture of the porch of the portal
See detailed photos:
Capital sculpture of the portal porch
Inside, the arches of the porch end predominantly on pillars with old semicircular services, the capitals of which are adorned with pine cones and buds, foliage and flowers. They are mainly decorative motifs, but they can also have a deeper symbolic meaning, just like the elephants, a symbol of strength, combined with patience, or the scallops, which are reminiscent of the pilgrimage to Santiago.
The elephants
It is more than unlikely that the creators of these motifs ever had an elephant in mind. They only knew him from sketches and drawings that they had brought back from the Orient. That explains the anatomical errors and the awkwardness of the representation. The Perrecy elephants, for example, have ruminant hooves and tusks reminiscent of wild boar , very small ears and a long tail.
Naked woman suckling two snakes
The naked woman bites two snakes in the breast. This theme is common in Burgundy and represents the punishment of lust . It can be found in Charlieu , Gourdon and Sémelay, for example . The woman with the snakes of Perrecey stands or crouches in a wooden tub. This detail, which is difficult to explain, gives the presentation its special charm, which otherwise seems rather stereotypical.
Mermaids, mermaids or sirens
Here sirens with double tails are depicted, an image of temptation and inviting sensuality, as well as a symbol of the demon of immorality .
Column bases
The column bases are decorated with the exception of two with foliage or flowers. One shows the head of a person with huge ears with crossed arms and arms extending from it, the other the head of an ox resting between its hooves.
Portal porch, leaf capital with pine cones
Portal porch, elephant capital
Portal porch, capital, double-tailed siren
Portal porch, base capital
Portal column capitals
The hermits Antonius and Paul
The capital above the left portal column is badly damaged. It is dominated by a lush foliage and tendrils. Three figures appear in it: on the right a bearded monk with a hood and long robe, in the middle the remainder of an animal, of which almost only the front legs have been preserved, on the left a bearded and long-haired person who leans on a stick. This scene is interpreted as the meeting of St. Paul, the first hermit - not the apostle - with St. Anthony. “[…] Antonius had gone into solitude and believed that he was the first hermit to retreat into the desert when it was revealed to him that an anchor who was even more pious than he had come before him. He went to look for him. But he would not have found its hermitage if it had not been first led by a centaur , then a faun and finally a wolf ”.
So on the right is Paul who has just got up from his seat and is holding the book against his chest. The lush folds of his cloak fall gathered down over his forearm. On the left, Antonius has reached the destination of his journey, tiredly leaning on his pilgrim's staff with both hands . Only the cleft hooves and legs of the faun who led him to Paul are preserved. Strange trees on either side symbolize the distant, unknown land in which the two hermits lived.
The three-headed bird
The capital above the right portal column is better preserved. However, his representations are puzzling. The main character in the middle is a huge bird with three heads on long necks, one of which is lost. Two of them faced forward and one backward. He stands upright on his left leg with strong claws, facing left, and raises his right leg in a defensive position.
Opposite him on the left edge of the capital stands a warrior with a splayed mustache, who is holding up a bulbous shield in his left hand and a sling in his hanging right, ready to attack. He is extremely lightly dressed. He is naked except for a belt around his waist, from which narrow animal fur straps hang down, and his pointed helmet. He rides a kind of snake that bites his stomach. His cleft hooves and sparse clothing are reminiscent of "the slashed belt of the ancient Faun" and reveal a kind of faun in this figure, which is very similar to the demon in the Psychomachia in the collegiate church Notre-Dame du Port in Clermont-Ferrand . E. Mâle sees it as “all the lower instincts of nature”.
To the right of the wondrous bird, and as if protected by it, stands a naked woman with crossed legs who tries to hide her face behind her hands. H. Barrès recognizes in her "the image of fearful modesty". Pastor Terret , who ignored this third figure and the ominous character of the warrior, interpreted this scene as the fight between angel and demon and probably wrongly interpreted it as a basilisk .
Almost the same capital can be found in Vézelay , where it is generally regarded as an illustration of Prudentius' Psychomachia . A three-headed angel can be found in Autun .
Door post capitals
Immediately next to and at the level of the capitals of the two portal columns, a narrower door post capital adjoins each inside, that of the Archangel Michael and that of the fighting angel.
archangel Michael
On the left side of the door, the Archangel Michael is shown bent slightly forward. He stands with bare feet on the dragon he has just defeated, has spread his wings wide and bears a nimbus behind his head . In his left hand he holds a lance taller than a man, which stands vertically on the dragon's body. With his left hand he shows the arriving person to the door, the way to the holy place.
Fighting angel
On the right-hand side of the door stands an angel facing outwards in an extremely tense defensive position, with a raised sword in his right hand ready to strike. He holds his wings wide apart and high, and his head is backed with a nimbus. In his left hand he holds a curved shield with a hump in the center, behind which he hides a frightened crouching figure. It is undoubtedly the Christian man whom the angel defends against evil.
Sculpture of the tympanum
Christ is represented in glory on the tympanum or arched field . He is enthroned in a mandorla that is pointed at the bottom and is carried by two angels, each with three pairs of wings, without touching them. The slender wings are spread upwards, downwards and sideways. Christ sits erect in an ankle-length robe on a royal throne. His head covers shoulder-length hair and is backed by a cross nimbus . He raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing with an outstretched, tightly fitting middle and index finger. With his left hand he supports the open holy scriptures, which stand upright on the left of his widely spread thigh. His feet are bared. In the deep spaces between the sculpture, there are faint remnants of a former colored version.
The angels have oversized hands and bare feet. Except for their long legs, their bodies are covered by the many wings. But they cannot have human proportions. Perhaps one wanted to point out that they are spiritual beings. Their heads are backed with nimbs. The wings have rows of closely set eyes just behind the leading edges. They are armed with it like the four beings of the Apocalypse , which according to John "each has six wings that are all around and inside covered with eyes" . Depictions of such angels are very rare, for example on the tympanum of the south portal of the Notre-Dame du Port collegiate church in Clermont-Ferrand .
Sculpture of the architrave
On the lintel, six scenes full of liveliness from the passion of Jesus are depicted in reliefs, from left to right the Garden of Gethsemane , the Judas kiss , the capture , Peter chops off Malchus' ear , Jesus before the high priest and Jesus before Pilate.
gethsemane
The scene in the garden of Gethsemane is shown on the left extension of the lintel protruding here. Jesus had just told his disciples, “Sit down” and just a stone's throw away, where he prayed and thought of the sufferings that awaited him. When he comes back, he finds her sleeping. The sculptor captured precisely this moment here. Most of the disciples are asleep, one of them has his arm hanging over a rock, at the foot of which cacti are reminiscent of the biblical landscape. Only the rear group of disciples has nimben. Christ carries a palm branch in his hand, the symbol of martyrdom , and raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing to Peter and John, who stand in front of the other disciples who have fallen asleep, exhausted from their worries and grief, and says to them: “You may now not sleep ”, Jesus shook her awake,“ Get up and pray that you may resist temptation! ”(Lk 22, 45-46)
Behind Jesus, on the transverse side of the lintel protrusion, stands the angel of comfort, whom the Father sent: "[...] An angel appeared from heaven and gave him new strength." (Lk, 22.43) The angel is represented frontally. The elegant folds and sweep of his foot-length robe transform the stone of the sculpture into apparently silky gauze. His posture, slightly inclined to one side and his lowered head, gives the impression of a consolation.
The Judas kiss
On the left half of the actual lintel is shown the scene in which Jesus, followed by his disciples, prepares to leave the garden. The heads of the figures, especially the faces, are badly damaged. Peter can be recognized by his key, some apostles and Jesus carry a book. Before Jesus with a large cross nimbus, Judas bends his knee and betrays him with a kiss.
Luke (22.47–48) says: “They were led by Judas, one of the twelve disciples. Judas went to Jesus to greet him with a kiss. But Jesus asked him: "Judas, do you want to betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"
The capture of Jesus
This scene follows the middle of the lintel on the right. Luke 22.52 says: “Then Jesus asked the high priests, the leaders of the temple police and the leaders of the people who had all come with him: Am I a criminal that you armed yourselves with swords and clubs to arrest me? ? "
Jesus in side view with a large cross nimbus and a book in his right hand, stands slightly bent forward facing a tall person who is vivaciously talking to him, whose body is badly damaged. Jesus stands barefoot, the people following him are wearing shoes. He is followed first by a person who has shouldered a mighty club and thrusts forward with the right hand of Jesus. His striding lower legs are bared. He is followed by a similarly dressed person who pushes the man in front by the hip. The faces of the two aforementioned people are destroyed. The following and final person is the symbolic representation of the demon participating in the arrest of Jesus that he inspired. His flaming, towering hairstyle is also misinterpreted as the "horned headgear of a Jewish dignitary". In his right hand he is carrying an equally oversized lantern that stands on the floor and is intended to attract the viewer's attention. One must not forget that this sculpture was the "Bible of the poor and illiterate". The lantern reminds of the night in which the event took place as well as of the battle of light against darkness. Demons with a hairstyle made of individual tufts of hair that resemble licking flames can be found in Perrecy as well as in the cathedral of Autun and in Anzy-le-Duc .
Jesus is brought before the high priest
The last scene on the right on the lintel, before it was moved, is badly damaged again. The right person has the remainder of a cross nimbus on the upper edge of the relief, which identifies them as Christ. He stands facing the viewer with his hands tied and seems to be facing the scene to his left. The bearded person with knee-length trousers following him touches his shoulder with his right hand. Further back is an oversized person with a nimbus, whose body is twisted backwards in a wide arc. It is Peter who is holding a downward sloping sword in his right hand, with which he strikes a mighty blow. The arm and sword are not preserved and only a few contours can be traced. With his left hand stretched out horizontally, he seems to be balancing his equilibrium and holding onto an object on the upper edge of the relief. It is possible that the sculptor wanted to emphasize with the moved demeanor of Peter the effect that Jesus triggered with his reaction, in which he disapproved of the use of the sword. The person before him whom he threatened is in the form of a child. It should be about the servant of the high priest Malchus , whose ear Peter cut off: “Simon Peter had a sword, drew it from its sheath and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear; and the servant's name was Malchus. "(John 18.10)
To the right of the figure of Christ there remains a short piece of the lintel of the door, on which only the contour of another person can be guessed, who is probably the seated high priest, to whom Jesus will be presented before he is brought to Pilate. There are old photos at the French Monument Protection Office that support this assumption.
Jesus before Pilate
This last scene is on the right projecting continuation of the lintel. In it, the faces of the five people are destroyed. The second person from the left can be recognized as Jesus by their nimbus on the cross. He stands in front of a reluctant disciple who turns back slightly. It is believed that the sculptor wanted to show that a disciple followed Jesus to the governor , even if the Gospels do not report this. But one can also see Peter in this person who denied his Lord three times. Jesus carries the holy scriptures on his chest, his hands are no longer tied. The person who precedes Jesus is obviously a Jewish personality. We know that Annas sent Jesus to Kajaphas , who then had him brought to Pilate . The Jew sent by Kajaphas addresses the main character, who is dressed in a short tunic and a cloak, as wore the Romans. It is the governor Pilate, who in turn greets the Jews. In his left hand he carries the shaft of his scepter. A little above him the remains of a Roman eagle can be seen, a symbol of the occupying power.
John describes this scene in passages 28–29: “In the early hours of the morning they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the official residence of the Roman governor. The Jews themselves did not enter this building because it would have made them unclean according to their religious rules and would not have been allowed to attend the Passover meal . So Pilate went out to them and asked: “What charges are you bringing against this man? What has he done?""
The following are noteworthy in the clothing of Pilate: the delicacy of the execution of the precious tunic, made of smooth and plaited ribbons with broad ribs, the folds of the cloak that surrounds the right arm raised in greeting, and the shape of the shoes that cover the instep of his feet. When the sculptures of Pilate and the Jew were damaged, tufts of flame-like hair remained, one on the head of the Jews and two on that of Pilate. Such tufts of hair also occur in the scene of the “capture of Jesus”, which is seen as a symbolic representation of the demon.
A good bit behind Pilate is someone who greets him like him. She is dressed in a kind of knickers, which is held by a belt at the waist. Her left foot is in a slipper, her right foot is bare, which can be recognized by the representation of the toes. It is a soldier with a lance, of which only a small remnant has been preserved at the upper edge of the relief. A ruffled cloth falls over his left shoulder. He probably just woke up early in the morning and got up hastily.
With the demonstration in front of Pilate, the vivid depiction of the Passion ends, from the events of late Maundy Thursday to Good Friday morning.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e L'église romane de Perrecy-les-Forges. Edition du Millénaire, Brochure editée par la Commune et la Paroisse de Perrecy-les-Forges 2002, ISBN 2-9500644-0-X (Commune), ISBN 2-9500643-0-2 (Paroisse).
- ↑ L'église romane de Perrecy-les-Forges. ..., pp. 43–44.
- ↑ L'église romane de Perrecy-les-Forges. ..., pp. 22–42.
- ↑ ROMANES.com: Saint Pierre and Saint Benoit de Perrecy-les-Forges. seen September 4, 2009
- ↑ a b Victor Terret: La Sculpture bourguignonne aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles. Ses origines et ses sources d'inspiration. Cluny. Self-published, Autun 1914, p. 47.
- ^ Henri Barrés: Perrecy, son prieuré, son église. Perrecy 1957, p. 52.
- ^ Emile Mâle: Art religieux du XIIe siècle en France. 8th edition, A. Colin, Paris 1998, p. 238.
- ^ Emile Mâle: Art religieux du XIIe siècle en France. P. 24.
- ↑ Victor Terret: la bourguignonne Sculpure aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles. ... p. 100.
literature
- L'église romane de Perrecy-les-Forges. Edition du Millénaire (Brochure editée par la Commune et la Paroisse de Perrecy-les-Forges) 2002, ISBN 2-9500644-0-X (Commune), ISBN 2-9500643-0-2 (Paroisse). (French and German)
- Thorsten Droste: Burgundy. 3rd edition, DuMont, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-4166-0 .
- Przemyslaw Paul Zalewski: Architecture in the vicinity of Cluny: On the building history of a southern Burgundian priory church in Perrecy-les-Forges. In: Koldewey Gesellschaft, report on the 42nd conference for excavation science and building research 2002. Stuttgart 2004, pp. 166–176.
Web links
- Images on romanes.com
- Cartes Postales Anciennes de Perrecy-les-Forges old postcards
Coordinates: 46 ° 36 ′ 45 ″ N , 4 ° 12 ′ 54 ″ E