St-Martin (Saint-Martin-de-Londres)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The former priory church and today's parish church of St-Martin in the southern French town of Saint-Martin-de-Londres is one of the rare buildings with a three-conch choir in Europe. The church was recognized as a Monument historique as early as 1900 .

Transept and apse of the church

history

In a property register from 1088 of the Gellone Abbey, better known under its later name Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert , the church name Sancti Martini de Lundras appears for the first time as the foundation of a certain Adhémar-Guilhem de Montarnaud, the landlord ( seigneur ) of the place , on. It is unlikely that this was the church of today; rather, a previous building is to be assumed, which was replaced a few decades later by a new priory church.

architecture

Stone material

The limestone material of the church building is exceptionally precisely carved and walled in regular layers. Such an exact construction was very rare in rural areas; the building therefore definitely belongs to the first half of the 12th century.

Trikonchos

Crossing and apse of the church (inside)

The choir section and the transept arms of the church are characterized by three apses of equal size , arranged in the shape of a clover leaf , of which the middle one is pushed out to the east by a fore choir yoke. The crossing , built on a square floor plan, leads over into a squat octagonal drum with a lantern top and a small east window. The three apses and the fore choir yoke are divided by pilaster strips that end with round arch friezes ( bandes lombardes ); Toothed ribbons can be found under the eaves . All three components are illuminated through differently designed windows - some have set columns that merge into a bulge via interposed capitals , others have sloping reveals , but are otherwise unadorned. Above the lintel of the multi-stepped but largely unadorned south portal is a rider figure of St. Martin .

Nave

The nave is barrel vaulted ; the capitals of the wall templates ( half columns ) have no decoration. The crossing is on a - on - overall quite simply acting Pendentifs dormant dome spans. The apse, which is partially surrounded by windowed blind arcades , shows the usual hemispherical dome vaulting , which can also be found in the somewhat simpler transept apses.

Western parts

In the 19th century the church was extended by one yoke to the west. In the course of this measure, the one-piece bell gable ( clocher mur ) was built over the otherwise unadorned facade.

literature

  • Pierre A. Clément: Églises romanes oubliées du Bas Languedoc. Presses du Languedoc, Montpellier 1993, ISBN 978-2-85998-118-1 , pp. 53-56.

Web links

Commons : St-Martin (Saint-Martin-de-Londres)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Église Saint-Martin, Saint-Martin-de-Londres in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)

Coordinates: 43 ° 47 ′ 29 "  N , 3 ° 43 ′ 52"  E