St-Martin (Lurcy-Lévis)
The former priory church and today's parish church of Saint-Martin in the small town of Lurcy-Lévis in central France has one of the clover-leaf choirs ( trikonchos ) rarely found in Europe and has been recognized as a monument historique since 1937 .
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location
The church is located in the center of Lurcy-Lévis in the cultural landscape of the Bourbonnais in northern Auvergne near the border with the Burgundy region .
Building history
Exact construction dates are not known, but the three-apse clover - leaf choir , which is rather unusual in France, points to a date of origin at the end of the 12th century. The transept and the wide, but only single-nave nave are assigned to the 14th century, while the two-part late Gothic west portal was added in the 15th century.
architecture
Shamrock choir
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The outstanding feature of the church is the Romanesque cloverleaf choir, built largely from roughly worked rubble stones , the central apse of which is structured by presented three-quarter columns with capitals , whose - iconographically and stylistically influenced by the sculptural art of Burgundy - sculptural decorations show human-devouring lion monsters or double-headed griffins . The two side apses only have a pilaster structure without capitals and made of precisely hewn stones. Below the eaves runs an undecorated and structurally insignificant console frieze , which imitates the ends of wooden rafters .
Inside, the three-streaked central apse shows a three-dimensional structure through presented columns, whereas the side apses are not structured. All components are plastered and - with the exception of the vaults - covered with precisely executed joint paintings ; In the central apse calotte there is a representation of Christ in a mandorla surrounded by the four evangelist symbols within an indicated starry sky.
Transept and nave
The transept and nave show better-hewn stone material; the crossing tower with its eight sound openings - again subdivided by set columns - is even made of precisely hewn stones. Inside the church there are pointed arches in the area of the crossing , although the two transept arms are only barrel vaulted and the profiled rib vault of the crossing rests on extremely 'primitively' designed console heads.
The ten-meter-wide single-nave nave gives - due to the lack of intermediate supports - a clear view of an arcade with pointed arches arranged according to a triumphal arch scheme on its east side , but is otherwise unstructured and spanned by a huge curved roof truss .
West portal
The west portal, slightly protruding from the wall, still shows a Romanesque-looking round arch with profiled archivolt arches . The actual entrance zone is divided into two by a capitalless central support and is crowned by two flattened late Gothic keel arches .
Furnishing
The interior of the church includes two baroque Pietà sculptures and a wood-carved sequence of the Stations of the Cross on the side walls.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Église Saint-Martin, Lurcy-Lévis in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
Coordinates: 46 ° 43 ′ 49 " N , 2 ° 56 ′ 17.8" E