St-Etienne (Fosses)

Parish church of Sainte-Etienne, view from the west

View from the east

The Catholic parish church of Saint-Étienne in Fosses , a parish in the Val-d'Oise department in the French region of Île-de-France , was built in the second half of the 12th century at the transition from the Romanesque to the early Gothic . The church is not consecrated to the saint and martyr Stephen , but to Pope Stephen I , who lived in the 3rd century and of whom relics are venerated in the church. In 1913 the church was added to the list of architectural monuments in France as Monument historique .

history

During excavations in the vicinity of the church, the remains of houses from the Carolingian era were found, which prove that the place was already settled in the early Middle Ages . The start of construction on today's church is dated around 1170. First the choir and the bell tower were built, then the two apse chapels and the transept. After the completion of the nave towards the end of the 12th century, construction was completed.

In the 12th or early 13th century, the north wall of the nave was broken through and a side aisle was added. Of this only the columns with their capitals and square fighters are preserved today. The north aisle itself was rebuilt between 1390 and 1420. The main portal today was probably built during this time. The south aisle was built in the 16th century.

architecture

Exterior construction

The choir head with its three apses is - like the bell tower - still influenced by the Romanesque. Under the roof of the main approach apse extends on corbels resting cornice .

In the middle of the west facade, embedded between two buttresses, the Gothic main portal opens up with a slightly raised pointed arch. It is framed by slender, high-set columns that are decorated with leaf capitals. The fighter plates are provided with a diamond frieze that continues under the unadorned tympanum and beyond the portal. The archivolts are studded with round bars , the outer archivolt has a leaf decoration.

The buttresses of the south aisle are crowned in the Renaissance style by decorative gables with flame vases. Between two yokes you can see a portal that is now walled up and above which a triangular gable was attached, including three empty niches and two carved stone slabs.

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  Bell tower

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  apse

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  Main portal

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  South side

inner space

In the main nave, which is covered by an open roof, high pointed arches open to the side aisles. You can still see the openings in the upper windows, which were later walled up because they were covered by the roofs of the aisles. The side aisles are covered with ribbed vaults. The vault of the north aisle was decorated with hangers , but these are no longer preserved.

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  North aisle

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  South aisle

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  Central nave

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  Crossing and choir

Furnishing

Reliquary

• The stone sculpture of a virgin with child is dated to the 14th century. The boy Jesus plays with his mother's veil with his right hand, and he holds a dove in his left hand.
• A stone reliquary in the Flamboyant Gothic style is attached to the south transept . It dates from the 15th century and, among other relics, contained those of Pope Stephen I, the patron saint of the church.

literature

• Dominique Foussard, Charles Huet, Mathieu Lours: Églises du Val-d'Oise. Pays de France, Vallée de Montmorency . Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Gonesse et du Pays de France, 2nd edition, Gonesse 2011, ISBN 978-2-9531554-2-6 , pp. 133-136.
• Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (ed.): Le Guide du Patrimoine. Île-de-France . Hachette, 2nd edition, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-01-016811-9 , pp. 313-314.
• Georges Poisson (ed.): Dictionnaire des Monuments d'Île de France . Éditions Hervas, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84334-002-0 , p. 344.
• Le Patrimoine des Communes du Val-d'Oise . Flohic Éditions, Vol. 1, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-84234-056-6 , pp. 460-461.

Web links

Commons : Saint-Étienne (Fosses)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Église Saint-Étienne in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
• Église Saint-Étienne topic-topos.com (French, accessed January 24, 2016)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jean Lebeuf: Histoire de la ville et de tout le diocèse de Paris. Table analytique . Vol. 2, Féchoz et Letouzey, Paris 1883–1893, p. 322 (French, accessed January 24, 2016)
2. ↑ Vierge à l'Enfant in the Base Palissy of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
3. ↑ Armoire reliquaire ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. topic-topos.com (French, accessed January 24, 2016) 

Coordinates: 49 ° 5 ′ 43.6 "  N , 2 ° 29 ′ 19.3"  E