St-André (Saint-André-de-Bâgé)
The Romanesque church of Saint-André is located in the French community of Saint-André-de-Bâgé about one kilometer outside the village of Bâgé-le-Châtel and eight kilometers east of the city of Mâcon . It is located in the community cemetery, which is still in use today.
History
The church was completed towards the end of the 11th century by monks from the formerly important Benedictine Abbey of Tournus , whose origins go back to the Merovingian era. The monastic community was busy building the cathedral and the associated monastery itself .
Archaeological investigations have shown three construction phases (see floor plan), the chronological order of which is not named in the sources.
The first construction phase, the original structure, probably dates from the early Romanesque period of the late 10th century. It was a rectangular hall that was a little more than a quarter shorter than today's nave and was closed in the east by a choir apse . The long walls of most of the nave of the hall still exist. As it is today, it was covered with a roof structure made of wooden beams and had no stone vaults . Therefore, the relatively thin walls manage without wall pillars or buttresses .
The second construction phase, presumably from the early Romanesque period, came about after the choir apse was demolished , with the replacement by a rectangular choir, which again had a choir apse to the east. It is not clear why the new choir was built at an oblique angle. Only the outer parts of the apse wall and the short wall sections that extend from it have survived.
The third construction phase led towards the end of the 11th century to the building that can still be found today. First the two side walls of the old choir, the west wall of the nave and the rest of the east wall were demolished . Presumably the window openings in the old side walls of the ship were also pried out. The ship of the original structure was lengthened by a little more than a third in the same elevation and closed with a facade . The entire transept with crossing and the two transept chapels including their stone vaults was almost completely rebuilt . The preserved walls of the choir apse from the second construction phase were provided with a wall on the inside and probably also vaulted with a new dome . A towering octagonal tower was erected over the crossing, reminiscent of Cluniac towers. Today's pointed, stone spire may have had a less steeply inclined forerunner.
The fact that the ship was ever arched can be ruled out because of the slim wall dimensions. Whether it always had an open roof structure cannot be proven from the sources that have been preserved, nor are any sources known about major damage or destruction.
The construction
Interior
Longhouse
The nave has a single nave and stands on an elongated rectangular floor plan. Its plain, plastered white side walls and the west wall show no design structures. On the long walls, in the upper third of the wall height, there are three small round-arched windows, beneath which are built benches along the entire length of the wall. The windows are complemented by a larger one high above the main portal of the west wall. The two-winged main portal is covered by a pointed arch . The receding arch field is plastered flat. On the north wall of the ship there is a small door to a side entrance.
The ship is covered by an open wooden roof structure made of sturdy, roughly worked beams, some with " forest edges ". Four triangular trusses span the width of the ship, the lower chords of which are lined with pieces of joists on the wall supports, which protrude about 60 cm from the wall, the heads of which are decorated by hand. In the middle of the room, the lower chords are suspended from vertical posts. Purlins are mounted at larger intervals on the bevels of the girders , which in turn support the invisible rafters . Between the purlins, the rafters are clad on the underside with wooden cladding. All wooden parts are whitewashed. The visible light roof beams make the ship appear primeval but spacious.
The floor of the ship is covered with a modern brick pavement in an irregular bond and changing formats, in the colors gray with a slight red tint. In the middle of the nave there is an approximately one meter wide strip of large-format grave slabs made of gray natural stone, with remnants of lettering engravings.
In the nave in the southeast corner there is a wooden staircase up to the bell chamber in the crossing tower .
Transept
The transept opens up through three openings in the east wall of the ship. They emerged only after the east wall of the nave was completely demolished. The middle, much larger opening is covered by a semicircular, simply stepped triumphal arch with a right-angled cross-section, which rests on figuratively carved capitals with profiled fighters . The openings flanking the triumphal arch are significantly deeper and narrower. Your parting remains under the fighters of the central opening. Their semicircular arches with right-angled edges merge on the inside with the crossing pillar cores and on the outside stand on short wall pillar pieces that protrude from the walls. The arch transitions are marked with profiled fighters.
The transept consists in the middle of the crossing, on massive bundle pillars, and the transept arms. The crossing pillars have three-quarter round services towards the crossing arches , with figuratively carved bases on right-angled plinths and consoles , as well as carved capitals and profiled fighters. The pillar cores are square, the edges of which are visible between the services. Towards the nave, the pillar cores are clad with rectangular pillar templates, which are closed at the top by profiled warriors. The crossing walls stand on an almost square floor plan, above which an octagonal trumpet dome with a narrow octagonal drum rises. A circular recess opens in the middle, which is intended for the transport of bells.
On both sides of the crossing, the transept arms are covered with slightly pointed barrel vaults across the nave. The east walls of the transept arms each have a chapel apse , the walls of which merge seamlessly into a domed vault. The chapel apses have no wall divisions or windows. The transept arms are illuminated in the north through a centrally arranged arched window in the gable, in the south through two such windows. In addition to the middle one, there is another window with a low parapet that extends almost to the western corner of the gable wall.
The floor of the transept is covered with gray natural stone slabs of various sizes in a "wild association".
Choir
The choir consists only of a semicircular apse and is vaulted by a dome. Its floor rises one step opposite that of the transept. Almost the entire length of the curve of the apse wall has a continuous window parapet at a height of a good meter, with a slightly cantilevered profiled cover plate. There are three blind arcades of the same width , flanked by two blind arcades that are half as wide. The arcade arches are semicircular, the middle one is divided into profiles several times on the front, the others consist of rectangular cross-section wedge stones with smooth visible surfaces. They stand on four round columns , two of which are smooth, the other two are adorned with twisted fluting , and are equipped with capitals of figurative sculpture and profiled fighters and bases. In the middle three arcade niches, arched windows are left out, the inner edge of the curtain running parallel to the arcade frame with a little distance. The actual window openings are somewhat smaller in accordance with the sloping walls.
All walls of the transept, the choir apse and the transept apses, as well as the crossing pillars, all arches, arcades and the tambour of the crossing dome are made of stone in a light natural color. The vaults, trumpets and domes are plastered in white.
Columns and capitals in the choir and crossing
Column with spiral fluting and plant capital, base with palmette decoration
Fluted column, decorated with an egg stick , figurative capital
Figurative capital with acanthus leaves
Man fights with snake
Exterior
Longhouse
The long, rectangular floor plan of the nave is covered by a thirty degree pitched roof with a red clapboard covering . The “real” eaves (without gutters ) on the side walls of the nave have a cantilevered eaves cornice without a corbel support. As in the interior, these longitudinal walls each have three small arched windows in the upper third. The nave clearly towers above the roof of the transept. The east wall of the nave is pulled up a good bit over its roof surfaces and its middle section hits the crossing tower. From the east one can see parts of this eastern nave gable above the transept roof next to the tower.
The masonry of the nave, like almost the whole church, consists of house stones in irregular, sometimes even regular layers. The colors of the visible stone surfaces range from white to light beige and yellowish to brown-gray, depending on the weather.
facade
The facade protrudes slightly over the roof surfaces of the nave. It is horizontally divided into two storeys and the triangular pediment. It is divided vertically into three almost equally wide sections, each with a dominant central section, which is flanked by two side sections.
The horizontal separation is provided by a cantilevered cornice with a pitched roof, and above the upper floor in the middle section a cornice on corbels, in the side sections the apex of the blind arcades.
With this facade there is a third structural dimension, namely its two different depths of the facade levels. A front level 1 (ground floor, middle section on the upper floor and gable field) and a level 2, which is set back by almost half a meter (side sections on the upper floor and gable field and the top of the gable).
The entire ground floor is on the first level.
Its central section is almost entirely taken up by the main portal, the arch of which pierces the cornice dividing the floors. A slightly sharpened archivolt arch is divided into four round profiles on the front as well as the inside and stands on slender, smooth round columns, which are equipped with figurative and vegetable carved capitals, also with ornamented fighter plates and profiled bases. The right portal capital shows five standing people, whose heads are backed with circular nimbs , that is , supposed to represent saints . One carries a scroll, another a book. The stone arch field has no structure or sculpture (anymore?). It rests on short pieces of wall that protrude from behind the pillars. These are completed on the portal reveals by high -profile fighters. The portal arch is covered by an inwardly sloping, wide decorative band, which is grooved over its entire width and has a uniform, checkerboard-like grid structure. The narrow outer edge of the band has the same structure.
The side sections of the ground floor are delimited on the outside by wide wall pieces with smooth stone surfaces and on the inside by the pillars of the portal. The recessed masonry surfaces in between are divided into two high niches by three identical rectangular pilasters . The fronts of the pilasters are divided into three angular webs by two right-angled fluting and are crowned by profiled fighters and stand on simple bases. The two niches are covered by double blind arcade arches, the inner edges of which consist of narrow round profiles, which are covered on the outside by decorative ribbons with chessboard ornamentation. In the middle of the field, the arch ends are supported by profiled consoles. The strip between the vertices of the arch stones and the cornice dividing the storeys is filled with smooth stone masonry that merges seamlessly into the side wall pieces.
A simple cantilevered cornice with a smooth pitched pitched roof above that separates the ground floor from the upper floor, which rises by about 60 degrees to Level 2, which is about half a meter back.
The middle section of the upper floor , the width of the portal, including the first pilasters, consists of a smooth stone surface on level 1, which is led around on both sides at a right angle to level 2. It resembles a bay-like closed porch. The two side sections of the upper floor that step back into level 2 are subdivided similarly to those on the ground floor. Instead of the three pilasters, only a simple wall pillar separates the wall surface into two niches. The double blind arcade arches made of smooth wedge stones are supported by simple brackets.
In the middle of the triangular gable on level 1, the “bay window” below is led upwards in the same width, at the bottom with a cornice on corbels, on which there is a group of three arcades, one middle and larger, and two flanking, about half as large semicircular Arcades. Their arches are made of roughly hewn wedge stones. Only the middle arcade contains a somewhat smaller round-arched window, the outer arcades are completely “blind”. The arcade arches rest on free-standing column shafts, the outer arches stand on the outside on rectangular pilasters that extend up to the rear wall. The columns and pilasters are equipped with carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases and angular plinths. Immediately above the central wedge arch, the "bay window" is covered by a flat, sloping pent roof, the stone slabs of which protrude slightly from the eaves. The outer corners of this roof butt against the covering of the verges of the facade made of flat stone slabs that protrude clearly from the wall surfaces.
The remaining three closed triangular sections of the gable field, to the side and above the central field, are on level 2.
The masonry of the facade niches and the gable field and the "bay window" above the blind arcades consists of roughly hewn unevenly wide and high house stones , but built in regular layers (layers of equal height). The remaining wall surfaces, such as those of the "bay window" on the upper floor, those of the wall pillars, those under the cantilevered cornice on the ground floor and the pent roof surfaces are made of smooth stone with extremely narrow joints. The shades of the visible surfaces of the natural stones correspond to those of the nave.
Transept and its apses
The transept arms protrude considerably beyond the nave. Its significantly deeper eaves push against its long walls a short distance behind the eastern corners of the nave. The stone eaves are supported by carved corbels. The red clapboard cladding protrudes a little over the cornices. This also applies to the eaves of the three apses on the east wall. The gable walls of the transept arms are raised slightly above the roof surfaces and covered with flat stone slabs. The north arm of the transept has two strong buttresses which are sloping on the top and covered with flat stone slabs, and reach up to about half the height of the wall, one on the northeast corner, pointing north, and a second on the northwest corner, pointing east. The same buttresses are also known on the southern arm of the transept, on the southeast corner, facing south, and on the southwest corner, facing west. The transept has a high arched window in the north and south gable, and a side entrance in the south gable. The house masonry in irregular layers of masonry is replaced at the component corners and around the openings by smooth stone in larger formats. There are also repairs to the wall surfaces with similar stones.
The two semicircular and windowless transept apses are significantly lower than the transept eaves and are covered by a half- conical roof inclined by thirty degrees .
Crossing tower
The almost square crossing with its massive walls protrudes from the roof surface to the height of the transept ridges. The bell tower with an octagonal floor plan, which is unusually high for such a small church, rises on this stable base. Four sides of the octagon are exactly flush with the outer surfaces of the crossing walls. The triangles created at the transition are covered with small half pyramid roofs . Above it are three tower floors, which are separated from one another by expansive cornices and close off the top floor. The lower floor is the highest, the following are lower by floor, the top is barely half as high as the bottom. The identical structure of the storey sides is reminiscent of the design elements of the facade. The first floor is completely closed. One side of the storey has two elongated niches next to each other, which are covered by twin arcades that stand on consoles in the middle of the field. On the next floor, open twin sound arcades open up in the lower half , the semicircular arches of which are stepped on the edges and rest in the middle on two columns standing one behind the other with carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases. On the outside, this is done by the side wall pillars with cantilevered transoms. The upper half of the storey again has two elongated niches with twin arches, as on the lower storey, but much lower. On the top floor, the twin sound arcades of the middle floor are repeated. The short remaining area above remains undesigned. Similar to the facade, the protruding pillars and wall parts are made of smooth stone. The niches and the entire top floor are made of stone in regular layers.
The tapering stone spire could perhaps have had a less steep predecessor. However, the steepness is not so great that it would have to be excluded as an original helmet. The helmet sides are covered with flat stones. In the lower third of the helmet sides there is an open dormer with a round arch. The upper third of the helmet changes in color and is slightly twisted. This indicates possible damage to the spire, for example from lightning. A stone Latin cross is erected on the top of the helmet.
Choir
The central choir apse, which is semicircular in floor plan, takes over exactly the heights of the eaves and ridge of the transept. In the lower half of the wall there are three round-arched choir windows with sloping walls. The windows are framed with smooth stone. The masonry usually consists of small-scale formats of house stones in regular layers.
Web links
literature
- The Green Guide. Burgundy, French Jura . Michelin Reise-Verlag, 2004 edition, ISBN 2-06-000230-3 - ISSN 0763-1375
Coordinates: 46 ° 18 ′ 9 ″ N , 4 ° 55 ′ 26 ″ E