St-Hilaire (Semur-en-Brionnais)
The former collegiate church of St-Hilaire is located in the middle of the French community of Semur-en-Brionnais , about six kilometers east of the Loire in the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne region ( Burgundy ). It is one of the most important Romanesque sacred buildings in the department. The sculptures of the tympanum of the main portal in the facade, which are compared with those of Charlieu and others in the region, present high art-historical quality .
St-Hilaire is a three-aisled basilica , with a vierjochigen nave in the typical three-storey Cluny - elevation , followed by a barely expansive transept and a three-nave choir bay with three apses .
In their neighborhood rises up the ruins of a donjon in the walls of the former castle, in the St- Hugo (born May 13, 1024 in Semur-en-Brionnais, Burgundy; † April 28, 1109), abbot and builder of Cluny III and Builder of the basilica of Paray-le-Monial saw the light of day, who was also responsible for the construction of the church in Semur .
history
The church is consecrated to St. Hilary of Poitiers (French St-Hilaire ) (* around 315 in Poitiers ; † 367), who was baptized with his wife and daughter in 345 and was elected first bishop of Pictavius (Poitiers) in 350 . In 356 he was exiled to Phrygia at the Synod of Baeterrae ( Béziers ) by the majority Arian -minded bishops . During his exile, Hilarius wrote two Latin treatises on the Trinity ( De Synodis and De Trinitate ), which in 1851 posthumously earned him the title of Doctor of the Church ( Doctor ecclesiae ). After a few years Hilarius was able to return home, where he was received as a hero of the Nicene faith. He presided over a council in Paris in 361. Hilary played an essential role in conveying Eastern theology to the Latin world, and vice versa.
The rocky plateau on which the village and the church are located was fortified by walls at the latest since the 9th century and is said to have been towered over by a donjon as early as the 10th century. The residential tower that stands today is a building from the 13th century, with a so-called chemise , a tower-reinforced shield wall that protected the most endangered part of the tower.
The Church of St-Hilaire is one of the numerous successors to the Church of Cluny III , the construction of which began during the tenure of Abbot Hugo of Cluny . It was not only important to him to have an appropriate church building in Cluny itself, but also in the place where he came from. However, no monumental church was to be built for the small priory of Semur; instead, they were limited to the special quality of the architectural execution, which should elevate the building to a certain architectural level.
The monastery was founded at the beginning of the 12th century by Baron Geoffroi V , bailiff in Brionnais and descendant of Geoffroi IV , the uncle of Abbot Hugo von Cluny .
This is how the new building, which presumably replaced an older church or castle chapel, was built at Hugo's birthplace. The construction of the church was carried out in two phases from the first quarter to the end of the 12th century (older east wing, younger nave).
You can see both matches and deviations from Cluny III . The most obvious difference is the shape of the choir closure. Since Semur was not affected by the pilgrimage, it was possible to do without a choir ambulatory with radial chapels . So they kept to the older pattern of Cluny II and built the simplest form of a relay choir with a choir end of three apses . The magnificent crossing tower was not given its shape until the 13th century.
The numerous similarities of motifs that existed in Cluny must be supplemented by an important detail: On the inside of the facade wall there is a small cantilevered gallery in the form of an upside-down half cone about halfway up the wall . According to old reports, there was such a thing in Cluny III . It is believed that it had a liturgical function. A small group of monks gathered here during the choir prayers , who responded like echoes to the singing of the confratres in the church choir, an early form of polyphony that first became common in the Gothic church music.
The lord of Semur , Jean de Châteauvilain , and the Bishop of Autun donated in 1274 a collegiate of 13 canons under the patronage of St. Hilary.
In the Hundred Years War (1339-1453) the buildings, like so many churches in Burgundy, suffered damage from marauding English troops.
Around 200 years later, in 1567, the Huguenot Wars led to further destruction.
Repairs and restorations followed in the 19th century, during which the originally sharpened barrels in the central nave were replaced by old-fashioned round barrels. Why this renewal was necessary is not clear from the sources.
The additions to the sacristy and a chapel to the southern choir chapel and the southern transept gable also date from modern times.
Building
- plans
- Dimensions
approximately, taken from the drawing and extrapolated,
without wall templates
- Total length (outside): 31.80 m
- Width of the nave (outside): 13.80 m
- Longhouse length (outside): 16.50 m
- Width of nave (inside): 12.10 m
- Longhouse length (inside): 17.50 m
- Central nave width (inside): 4.70 m
- Aisle width (inside): 3.00 m
- Transept overhang: 0.40 m
- Transept length (inside): 13.00 m
- Width of transept (inside): 4.40 m
- Central nave height in the apex (inside): 12.30–13.30 m
- Dome height: 13.60 m
- Chorjochhöhe at the apex: 8.70 m
Outward appearance
The church building was primarily made of medium-sized, smooth ashlar blocks made of light beige-colored to almost white limestone in regular layers of masonry, sometimes with different layer heights. Only for the choir apses that were built at the beginning of the construction work were smaller formats walled in, sometimes in irregular form. In different parts of the stone surfaces show signs of weathering in more or less dark gray tones.
Nave and facade
The vertical division of the longitudinal walls of the nave corresponds to the internal transverse division into four yokes . The staggering of the nave roofs also shows the internal longitudinal division into three naves. With its windows in the upper storey, the church presents itself as a real basilica. The central nave , which towers high above the aisle roofs , is covered by a gable roof with an incline of about thirty degrees, which is covered with red hollow tiles in Roman format, which are also called monk-nun tiles . The side aisles are covered by pent roofs with a shallower slope and with the same roofing. The eaves on the long sides are made of strong cornice with beveled multiple profiled visible edges, on the part of highly weathered corbels rest: They are usually carved plain and rounded inward. Some have simple ornaments. The lower rows of the brick cladding rest on the cornice and protrude slightly and the rainwater can drip off freely. Rectangular buttresses of the side aisles and the central nave , with their steeply sloping tops, extend to about one meter below the eaves. At the level of the transitions of the bevels, narrow cantilever profiles are marked on three sides. There is such a cantilever profile about one meter above the adjoining site or just above the pent roof ridges. The cross-section of the pillars on the ground floor increases in two stages under the cantilever profile.
On the ground floor, slender round-arched windows are recessed in the middle of the upper half of the wall sections, which are surrounded on the sides and at the top by wide, right-angled wall recesses. On both sides there are columns with carved vegetable capitals and profiled bases , on which archivolts made of round rod profiles and wide throats stand under the semicircular wedge arches that are flush with the wall . The arch approaches are marked by double-profiled fighters , whose profiles extend a short distance over the wall surfaces. The windows in yoke three on the south side and yoke four on the north side are significantly smaller, but designed in exactly the same way. Because the side portals are embedded in these yokes, these windows are shifted a little upwards. The openings in the upper cladding windows are about the same size as those on the ground floor. Your wall setbacks are much wider, which makes the windows appear larger. On roughly the same pillars are archivolt arches with three steps, made of one thicker and two slimmer round profiles. The transom profiles are led up against the buttresses.
The north portal in the fourth yoke has no figurative sculptural decoration. In a wide setback to the wall, slender columns are set on both sides, which are equipped with plant-carved capitals and profiled bases. On them are archivolt arches made of a spiral-shaped twisted rod and several semicircular profiles of different widths and throats and a wedge arch flush with the wall. The arch approaches are marked by fighters whose profile is adorned with a leaf frieze. The transom profile is continued over the side pilasters and as a separation between architrave and tympanum . The architrave is as high as the capitals and closes the doorway at the top. Its surface is delicately decorated with geometric and vegetable bas-reliefs. Five flower rosettes are enclosed by circular rings. The side door reveals are equipped with overhanging consoles. The arch field is decorated with a bas-relief in the form of a three passport. A short distance next to the edges of the wall setbacks, rectangular pilasters rise up in the floor plan, which are crowned by capitals and spars at the same height as the neighboring ones. The surface of the pilaster on the right is decorated similarly to that of the architrave. The left pilaster is adorned with two parallel egg stick profiles. On the pilasters stand two arches of archivolts, stepped one below the other, with geometrically decorated surfaces, the inner one with a frieze of circular rings, the outer one with a four-tier roller frieze, each of which is accompanied on the inside by multiple fine round bars.
The south portal in the third yoke is much simpler than the north portal. This could be due to the fact that the convent building of the monastery was once on the south side, whereas the north portal faces the public space. In a wide setback there are columns like the three-tier archivolt arches made of round profiles of different thicknesses in the north portal. The middle one is broken up into fine grooves, the outer one shows an ornamentally structured frieze. The transom profiles are equipped with similar friezes. The right one extends under the outer archivolt arch, the left one extends up to the buttress. In the tympanum, the bas-relief of a crutch cross can be seen, the surfaces of the architrave and the arch field are structured with simple surface offsets.
The facade in the west of the nave is divided vertically into three sections, the middle section closes off the central nave and protrudes just as far as the buttresses of the facade. The end walls of the aisles are on the side. The facade gable of the central nave towers over the nave roof by almost a meter. The half-gables of the side aisle walls also protrude over the flatter monopitch roofs and are drawn up steeply to the central nave, where they come up against short buttresses. The corners of the building are equipped with two buttresses standing across the corner. In the middle of each aisle front there is a window that is designed like the other windows of the aisles. A small, slit-like, arched opening is cut out further up.
The middle wall section of the facade is divided horizontally just below the middle height with a narrow cornice. The lower section contains the main portal flanked by two buttresses protruding slightly from the surface of the wall. Shortly below the cornice, two corbels protrude, which once supported a sturdy wooden beam on which a pent roof rested, which belonged to a former wooden vestibule. A slit-like round-arched niche is set in just above the cornice. A large, circular round window is cut out further above, which looks huge due to the greatly expanded reveal.
The main portal in the facade has figural decorations on the lintel and tympanum; the columns and archivolts are woven into small-scale geometric patterns. Slender columns are set in three-tiered walls . The outer ones are twisted in a spiral, the inner ones densely decorated with a carpet of flower rosettes . They are equipped with carved capitals, profiled bases and multi-tiered plinths. The outer capitals are leaf capitals, the inner one on the left is carved with delicate plants. The inner right shows a goatee crouching person, from under whose short skirt a huge male genital organ peeps out. On the pillars there are pointed archivolt arches made of round profiles. The inner arch, like the associated columns, is covered with flower rosettes, the outer one is twisted in a spiral. The archivolt arches are accompanied on the outside by sleek, slimmer round profiles and deeper lying flat wedge stones, the inner archivolt arch on the inside by a round profile. Multi-profiled transom plates mark the height of the arches. Their profiles are used as a separation between the architrave and tympanum and led outwards around the pilasters. Rectangular pilasters form the outer portal frame. The decorative motif of the surfaces is a double band of a wickerwork of diagonally crossed bands. The sculpture of the capitals is purely vegetable. A pointed arch rises above the warriors in the width and shape of the pilasters. This arch is covered again by a profile in which two bands intersect and form a continuous series of pointed, oval almond shapes. The spaces in between are filled with pine cones. There are small pine cones at the ends of the arch, and a relief of the Lamb of God appears at the top.
The portal opening, into which a double-leaf wooden door is hung, is closed off at the top by the lintel. It rests on both sides of the corbels of the door reveal, which are decorated with sculptures of crouching human figures, a man and a woman.
The lintel and its reliefs are dedicated to the story of St. Hilary, the patron saint of the church. On the far left is a building complex with a small figure. The whole main scene is covered by a ribbon of tendrils. On the left is Bishop Hilary of Poitiers, in his hand his writings on the Trinity . His fiercely arguing opponents are enthroned on a gallery, while Hilarius is refused a seat. Then the floor rises wonderfully: In the center of the overall scene, Bishop Hilarius crouches on the raised floor, a miter on his head , an angel comes out of heaven and incenses Hilary. Further to the right appears the heretical Pope Leo, who exhales his soul on the latrine chair, which emerges from the mouth of the Pope in the form of a small figure and is immediately seized by several devils. Hilary defended the doctrine of the divine nature of Christ against the heresy of Arianism at several councils. The story of Pope Leo, who fights against Bishop Hilarius and dies on the latrine, is based on a confusion with Hilarius von Arles, the adversary of Pope Leo I.
The figures look a bit clumsy and awkward. At first one thinks of early Romanesque works. But the emphasized plasticity of the reliefs is only an achievement of the 12th century. Its creation is classified in the second half of the 12th century, when Romanesque art in Burgundy was already coming to an end.
In the slightly ogival tympanum , Christ is enthroned in an oval mandorla , which forms a unity with the rounded nimbus of a cross . It is held by two six-winged seraphim . In his left hand he holds the book of life on his thigh. His upright right represents the gesture of blessing . Christ is dressed in a flowing, foot-length garment. His bare feet rest on a plate supported by an angel. The throne is indicated on both sides by pieces of precious carving. The winged evangelist symbols are depicted in the side panels of the tympanum : a person symbolizes Matthew (top right), the lion Mark (bottom right), the bull Luke (bottom left) and the eagle John (top left).
The lamb ( Agnus Dei ) at the top of the outer archivolt is a quotation from the north portal of the Abbey of Saint-Fortunat in Charlieu , to which the portal sculpture of St-Hilaire de Semur seems to be indebted.
Transept with crossing tower
The transept is about as wide as the central nave and only slightly protrudes from the walls of the aisles. However, it is more noticeable above the roofs of the aisles. Its eaves lie a little above the put roof ridges of the side aisles and the choir bay. The transept arms are covered by gently sloping gable roofs and are covered like the nave. Their eaves design almost correspond to those of the nave, the cantilever consoles on the southern arm of the transept are simply sculpted and in some cases no longer exist, while those on the northern arm are sculptured. The gable walls of the transept arms tower over the gable roofs by a good meter near the eaves. The overhang in the direction of the ridge is significantly larger due to the approx. 30 degree greater inclination of the gable tops. These are covered with smooth panels that are flush with the wall and pivot a short distance horizontally at the lower ends. Just behind the edges of the gable walls, there are buttresses, as they are known from the nave. They end a little below the eaves height of the transept arms. Vertical-format niches are cut out above half the height of the gable and end with twin blind arcades in the upper area. The edges of the niches and blind arcades are divided into quarter round bars. In the lower niche area there is a circular ox eye, the outwardly widened walls of which are broken up into three round rods, the inner of which is decoratively sculpted. The outer one is enclosed by a narrow profile with several grooves. Small pylons tapering towards the top and carrying a kind of pine cone are erected on the gable ridges .
In the east walls of the transept arms there is a round arched window with similar fittings as those of the nave.
In the angle between the north arm of the transept and the north wall of the nave, a stair tower protrudes from the pent roof of the aisle, which is leaned against the wall of the nave. The spiral staircase probably begins at the height of the walkway of the triforium and leads further up to the upper attic spaces above the vaults and finally to the bell house in the crossing tower.
The two-storey octagonal crossing tower ends with its south and north sides flush with the surface as an extension of the central nave walls . The three western tower sides of the lower storey are almost completely covered by the connection to the central nave, the ridge of which even protrudes somewhat into the sound arcade of the upper storey. Only the other five sides are externally visible. The lower floor essentially houses the octagonal crossing dome and the drum below . It is therefore closed, with the exception of three small windows in the drum just above the adjoining roof.
A twin blind arcade is embedded in each of the five sides. The arcade arches consist of two curved round bars that are covered by a cantilever profile that is covered with a four-fold roller frieze. Inside, they stand together on a fluted pilaster with a capital and outside on columns with sculpted capitals and profiled bases. Double-profiled fighters mark the arch approaches and their profiles extend to the edges of the octagon. The storey is closed off by a multi-level cantilevered cornice on the same cantilever consoles, which is no longer reminiscent of Romanesque forms.
The upper storey houses the bell house. Its eight edges are flanked by two slender semicircular columns that stand on the cantilevered cornice. In the wall field in between, three-tier arcades are embedded in wall recesses. They consist of columns with carved capitals and profiled bases on which there are pointed arches made up of wide covings. Behind the third arcade there is a twin arcade with a smooth arched field. Their small round arches each stand together on a column with a sculpted warrior and a profiled base and on the outside on double warrior profiles that extend over all capitals and over the columns next to the octagonal edges. The remaining slender and small sound hatches are filled with sound fins. The storey is closed on the top by a double cantilever profile that also runs around all the columns next to the octagonal edges. Shortly below, there is a small dazzle on each side of the octagon made up of five small pointed arches.
The roof of the tower has the shape of an octagonal pyramid, with extremely flat sloping sides. It is covered with the red tiles like those of the other roofs. Its ridge is crowned by a delicate metal cross.
East end (choir bay with choir apses)
The choir bay is again three-aisled, in elevation comparable to that of the central nave. However, here the central nave is only about as high as the transept arms. Its pitched roof corresponds to that of the transept in terms of inclination, height, roofing and eaves formation. Its monopitch roofs correspond to those of the side aisles of the nave. In the walls of the first floor and the upper storey there is a round arched window with similar fittings as those of the nave. The former window on the ground floor of the southern choir bay fell victim to the later addition of the sacristy. The choir bays are closed in the east by a wall that again protrudes above the roof surfaces. The upper wall ends are steeper than the adjoining roof surfaces. The middle part of this wall is very similar to the gable walls of the transept arms. This also applies to the niche and the ox-eye. The gable ridge is crowned by a sculpture made of what appears to be braided ribbons in the form of a four-leaf rosette, which is connected by a smaller circular ring. Where the bands cross, they always change from an overlap to an undercut and vice versa.
The three choir apses are an extension of the three naves of the choir bay in front of the gable wall. The middle one is much more extensive, especially higher, than the two outer ones. It is covered by a flat sloping roof in the shape of a half cone. Its eaves consist of a beveled, profiled cantilevered cornice with a narrow pane frieze supported by a round-arched dwarf diaphragm. The rounded free wall surfaces are divided into approximately three equal sections by buttresses with a rectangular cross section. These reach up to just below the eaves and reduce their cross-section to just over half the height. The heads of the buttresses are covered with steep bevels that protrude on all sides. Underneath there are large rectangular capitals, which are decorated with delicate plant structures. Between the pillars there are slender, arched windows in the lower wall area. The outer apses do not have buttresses. They are covered by flat sloping roofs in the form of a quarter cone, which merges into a piece of monopitch roof in the direction of the central apse. The roof covering corresponds to that of the other roofs. The eaves cornice with a profiled sloping visible edge lies on simply carved corbels that are rounded inward. Only in the apse of the apses is a round arched window left open, which is smaller than in the middle apse.
Later additions
On the south side of the church, a ground floor structure has probably been added to the transept and the south choir chapel in modern times. About half of it contains a chapel and a sacristy. Its eaves are a little lower than the height of the southern apse. It is covered by a pent roof, which is hipped at the head ends and clings to the rising parts of the church. The roof covering corresponds to the rest. The simple eaves cornice is partly flat on the underside, but also bevelled on the other. The eastern sacristy has a small arched window on the east and south side, the chapel only has two slightly larger arched windows on the south side. Not only from the different window sizes, but also from the different types of masonry and the eaves cornices, it can be seen that the chapel and the sacristy were built in two separate construction phases.
Interior
Almost all walls, pillars, templates, arches and other things were made of smooth, medium to large-sized stone made of light, almost white, pale beige-colored limestone blocks in regular layers. Smaller stone formats were also used for the choir apses. All vault surfaces and the belt arches in the central nave are clad with smooth, natural-colored plaster.
Longhouse
The nave stands on a rectangular floor plan and is divided lengthways into three naves and crossways into four bays. It shows the typical basilic three-zone Cluny elevation.
The division into ships is made by the two partition walls that stand on strong pillars. Together with the pillar templates protruding from them and the belt arches standing on them, these take on the division into yokes.
The pillars have cross-shaped cores with roughly the same arms or templates. They stand on pedestals that are almost one meter high , with a cross-shaped cross-section that is also enlarged on all sides. The partition walls open on the ground floor from the central nave to the side aisles via large arcades with pointed round arches, the central nave edges of which are set back with sharp edges. These stand on semicircular services , which are equipped with mostly vegetable carved capitals, multi-profiled fighters and high plinths . The fighters are led around the side of the next pillar core edge. The central nave-side template of the pier core is carried over the entire wall height of the central nave to the vaults. The fluted pilasters , which are fitted in front of the templates and equipped with profiled spars and bases , extend up to the level of the first storey, just above the apex of the outer wedge arches . The latter stand on high plinths. The bevelled transom profile, with double pane friezes, runs over the entire width of the yoke and closes off the ground floor.
The second floor is the triforium and consists of a series of triplet markings, between the ground floor and the upper zone . Behind the arcades is a narrow walkway, which is separated by a closed wall from the roof space of the pent roofs connected here. In each yoke there are two round-arched triple arcades. Their arches are profiled several times and each stand together on pillars with carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases. The outer ends of the arch stand on pillars or wall templates with a rectangular cross-section, the visible sides of which are clad with half-columns. Even their arches are marked by fighters. The capitals and arches extend behind the columns to the wall of the walkway. Immediately above the outer crowns of the wedge arches, the storey is closed with a double round profile.
The third floor is the upper line zone. In the center of each yoke there is a round arched window, the walls and parapet of which are slightly widened inward. Above the outer apex of the wedge arches, a cantilever profile closes off the last floor, which is also led around as a fighter over templates and capitals.
In continuation of the pilasters on the ground floor, two semicircular young services standing next to each other are overlaid in front of the pillars on the second and third floors, which are crowned by shared carved capitals. On them stand right-angled and sharp-edged belt arches in cross section, which divide the barrel vault into four sections.
The vault that exists today in the form of a round barrel with its belt arches is a work of the 19th century. Why the renewal was necessary at that time and why not in the original shape of a sharpened round barrel is not clear from the sources. A slight point can still be seen on the wall to the crossing.
What can only be seen in a longitudinal section through the nave is a continuous increase in the vertex height of the vault, from the beginning of the first to the end of the last yoke it rises by about one meter, but if the vaults remain horizontal. But that cannot be managed with purely semicircular arches. One helped oneself by choosing a segment arch-shaped arch at the beginning in the first yoke, which develops from a semicircular to a stilted arch at the end in the fourth yoke.
The rectangular door opening of the main portal is cut out in the west wall of the central nave. It is spanned by a pointed arch that contains a slightly receding, flat tympanum.
The walkways are connected to one another at the height of the triforias . A larger, arched opening in the middle is flanked on both sides by biforias or twin markings, the design of which corresponds to the triforias of the side walls. A bay window in the shape of an upside-down half cone protrudes from the large opening. Its walls are slightly stepped in layers and its lower pointed end also forms the keystone of the portal arch. A wooden balustrade stands on the edge of the bay window and turns the bay window into a gallery, the probable role of which is explained in the “History” section.
At the very top, directly under the top of the vault, a large circular ox-eye is cut out, the walls of which are also strongly widened inward and are stepped.
In the east wall of the central nave, a large arcade opens across the entire width of the central nave, the pointed arch of which has edges with sharp setbacks on both sides and stands on fluted pilasters with carved capitals, profiled warriors and bases. are equipped on high plinths. The transom profiles lie a short distance below the transom profile delimiting the ground floor and are led around the pillar template. Just above the apex of the outer wedge-shaped arch there is a small round-arched opening cut out on the sides of the recesses in the wall with small pillars with sculpted capitals, profiled warriors and bases. This opening is repeated in the tambour of the four on the other three sides as a window.
In the side aisles, the pillars, which are rectangular in cross-section, face the corresponding wall templates on the outer walls, with the same transoms and high base extensions. Pointed, sharp-edged belt arches rest on them. The rectangular vault fields are covered by groin vaults, the gussets of which abut a short distance above and parallel to the reveals of the arcade arches of the partition walls and the belt arches against the surrounding components.
In each yoke and in the western head wall of the side aisles there is a slender, arched window, the reveals and parapets of which are slightly widened inward. On the south side in yoke three and on the north side in yoke four, rectangular door openings are recessed, which are covered by pointed arches that span a flat tympanum. Above it is a much smaller, arched window. At the east ends, the aisles end with the same arcades as they are used to divide the yoke.
Transept with crossing
The transept arms are an extension of the aisles and are only about 45 centimeters larger than they are wide in the transverse direction to the nave. In the longitudinal direction they are almost as big as the nave is wide. They are vaulted by pointed transverse barrels, the beginnings of which are marked by a cantilever profile with a double roller frieze, which is level with the warriors of the crossing capitals. The arcades to the side aisles of the choir bay and the nave correspond to those of the bay dividing arcades of the side aisles. The arcades to the crossing correspond to those between the central nave or choir bay and crossing, but here instead of the pilasters, semicircular services are faded in. In the head walls, above the height of the vault extensions, a circular ox eye is recessed, the walls of which are two-fold. On the east side, a round arched window with inwardly widened walls is cut out above the vaulting, and a semicircular stitch cap is attached to the wedge arch. In the north arm of the transept, a round arched passage is cut out on the west side, to which a wooden spiral staircase leads up, which allows access to the walkway behind the triforias. This opening is also covered with a stitch cap. In the gable wall of the southern arm of the transept, a pointed arcade opening is cut out, which opens up a chapel in the southern extension, which is illuminated by two small, arched windows.
The square crossing is enclosed by the four arcades of equal size described above. Just above the apex of the outer wedge arches there is a horizontal cantilever profile, which encloses an octagon, made up of four long and four short sides. The short sides are swiveled 45 degrees over the corners of the crossing square. The triangles created there in the ground plan are supported by the so-called trumpets , which have the hollow shape of a conical quarter on the underside, which are formed from specially cut wedge stones. A tambour begins above the cantilever profile , made up of eight vertical wall sections. On the inside of these walls there is a round-arched blind arcade running all the way around. On each of the long sides, a large arcade is flanked by two medium-sized ones. There are two small arcades on the short ones. The neighboring wedge arches each stand together on pillars, in the eight corners on pilasters bent at 45 degrees in cross-section, all of which are equipped with carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases. Round-arched window openings are recessed in three of the largest arcades, while in the fourth a recess of the same size opens into the central nave. Immediately above the highest apex of the arch, the tambour is closed by another cantilever profile, which at the same time forms the edge of the octagonal dome. The gussets between the wedge arches are walled up flush with the surface. At first slight negative ridges rise from the eight corners, which merge further upwards into a hemispherical smooth surface. At the top of the dome there is a circular opening for the vertical transport of bells, tools and building materials.
Choir closure
The middle choir bay is vaulted at the same height as the transept arms by a pointed barrel, the beginnings of which are marked by a cantilever profile with a roller frieze that extends from the capital warriors. On the ground floor, arcades with pointed arches with sharp-edged setbacks open to the aisles. the outer vertices of which extend a little below the cantilever profiles. They stand on pilasters a good meter high, the outside of which is artistically carved with plants. They are crowned by plant-based carved capitals, the combatant profile of which extends to the neighboring templates. The pilasters are supported by figuratively sculpted capitals, the warrior profiles of which are continued as above. These sculptures are close to the eye of the beholder. Atlases and devils are shown carrying the pilaster sections. Immediately above the cantilever profile, a round arched window with flared walls is cut out on both sides, with a stitch cap attached to the wedge arch.
The arcade opening to the choir apse is slightly narrower and a little lower than the elevation of the choir bay. In the wall section between its apex and that of the choir yoke a circular ox-eye with widened walls is cut out. The apse, which is semicircular in plan, is vaulted by a half-pointed dome . Its curve is enclosed by a five-arched arcature above a circumferential base. With the exception of the outer one, the round wedge stone arches stand together on four slender wall pillars and two pillars, which are equipped with carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases. The height of the fighter is taken from the short pilasters in the choir bay. The edge of the base is marked with a double round profile. In the three central arcades, somewhat smaller round arched windows with widened walls are cut out.
The yokes of the flanking chapels are covered by groin vaults, as they are already known from the side aisles. In the northern yoke, a small, arched window with expanded walls is cut out in the outer wall; in the southern yoke, this former window has been walled up later. Instead, a door has been broken into the wall that leads into the sacristy attached here. The chapel apsides are vaulted by pointed half domed domes, the opening of which is slightly receding towards the adjoining components. Small, arched windows with widened walls are cut out in the apse apse.
- Gallery sculptures
Sculptures in front of an altar
St. James
chained martyr
crowned Mother of God with baby Jesus
Pilaster in the choir bay
Devil as Atlant
Atlant
literature
- Thorsten Droste : Burgundy. Monasteries, castles, historic cities and the culture of viticulture in the heart of France. 3rd updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7701-4166-0 , pp. 165–167.
- Rolf Tomann (Ed.): Burgundy. Architecture, art, landscape. Text by Ulrike Laule. Photographs by Achim Bednorz. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-2707-9 , p. 229.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Horst Fuhrmann : The fable of Pope Leo and Bishop Hilarius. About the origin and form of a historical legend. In: Archives for cultural history . Vol. 43, 1961, pp. 125-162.
Web links
- St-Hilaire (Semur-en-Brionnais). In: arch INFORM .
- Romanes.org: Art et Architecture Romane - Saint Hilaire de Sémur-en-Brionnais
Coordinates: 46 ° 15 '48.4 " N , 4 ° 5' 13.3" E