St-Pierre (Échebrune)
The parish church of Saint-Pierre is located in the small village of Échebrune in the Charente-Maritime department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region , France . The church has been registered as a monument historique since 1902 .
history
Very little is known about the history of the Church. There is also no evidence that the church, like many others of the Saintonge , belonged to a priory or monastery in the first centuries of its existence, but this is to be assumed because of the second entrance on the south side of the church and because of the elaborate architectural decorations. It is certain that the original church building, which is still extensively preserved today, especially with its famous facade , is the work of master builders in the 12th century, a time when political conditions were extremely calm. The proximity to one of the main pilgrimage routes ( Via Turonensis ) to Santiago de Compostela certainly contributed to the fact that the stonemasons could be paid.
The cause of most of the damage to church buildings can be seen in the relentless pillage and pillage of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). After a relatively short period of recovery, during which many repairs and renovations were made, the destruction continued during the Huguenot Wars (1562–1598); the rest was often done by the revolutionaries from 1789 onwards.
The parish church of Saint-Pierre also lost the old barrel vaulting of the nave and the entire Romanesque choir during the chaos of war . This was renewed and enlarged in the 15th and 16th centuries and at the same time expanded to include a full-length chapel to the south of the new choir. The huge pillars on the square substructure of the bell tower (12th century) also date from this period; presumably they were added to secure the statics .
The vaults of the choir and the chapel with gothic ribbed vaults , which were probably also renewed at the time , fell victim to the chaos of the war and are no longer there today.
The subsequent masonry of a sacristy in the area of the chapel is a work of modern times.
architecture
Outer shape
The overall design of the building is dominated by the west facade, as is the case with almost all Romanesque churches in Saintonge. It towers over the nave on the sides, even beyond the pillars, and clearly on the gable . The masonry consists of gray natural stone, mostly offset in a clear block structure. The surfaces exposed to the weather have applied differently tinted patinas , on the upper parts of the facade dark gray to black. The surfaces that are less exposed to rain, such as the archivolt arches of the facade, show yellowish to light ocher tones.
The yoke structure in the interior of the ship by round columns on pillar templates is taken from the outside with two-stage pier templates with a right-angled cross-section, each from a wide template on the wall, on which a second, narrow template sits on the outside. The templates reach up to under the eaves and are beveled at the end, tapering to zero. Between the pillars there is only the smooth wall, without any arcade structure, slightly protruding in the base area. A cornice, flush with the wide pillar template, protrudes over the wall surfaces, the front edge of which is profiled like a cove. It is supported by L-shaped corbels, the inner leg of which is rounded and profiled in cross-section. Two more layers have been built up on the cornice , up to below the actual eaves .
The small and narrow round-arched windows are arranged approximately in the middle of the wall height and are surrounded by one-section archivolts, with an archivolt arch with a square cross-section, on slender round columns in niches and cross-grooved capitals with strong, profiled fighters. The arch is bordered on the outside with a slightly cantilevered band, made of a geometric bar profile that extends a little horizontally to the wall at the lower end.
In the third yoke there is a four-tier archivolt portal, the surrounding wall of which is thickened up to the outside of the wall templates so that the deep portal wall can be accommodated. The upper side of the wall surface is steeply sloping over the eaves like a roof and adorned with an eaves cornice decorated with vegetal ornament. The archivolt arches consist of two profiles with a square cross-section, alternating with curved round rods, in the gusset of which are accompanied by narrow profiles. The arches stand on round columns, alternating with wall corners and their capitals and profiled fighters. A smooth tympanum is inserted under the arches . None of the structural parts of the portal have any figural or ornamental decoration.
An “ox's eye” is arranged in the wall above the south portal, with a frame of smooth wedge stones, bevelled in the reveal, and an outer protruding end profile with a geometric rod ornament.
The two side surfaces of the Romanesque crossing have no structures apart from a pilaster-like wall template in the middle and the two small round-arched windows, if one does not include the huge supporting pillars on the north and south sides. One of the pillars has become so wide that it protrudes into one of the windows, which was then walled up.
The later additions and conversions in the choir area also have no special structure, apart from the sturdy support pillars, arranged diagonally at the building corners, and the windows with Gothic pointed arches. A larger window on the south side of the chapel has a round arch, but is classified in the Renaissance style . In the vicinity of the eaves on the south side you can see some smaller corbels without function. Immediately under the eaves there is a stone gutter made of a right-angled profile, with a groove on the top, as a later retrofit. This channel is laid on a slope and is supported by larger corbels.
The floor plan of the square substructure of the tower corresponds to that of the crossing and protrudes far beyond the roof of the Romanesque nave, but ends just below the ridge of the significantly higher roof of the younger choir group with a narrow cornice profile. An octagonal floor plan of the bell chamber rises above it. On each side there is a slim, arched sound hatch with beveled reveals . The arches are bordered by a narrow bar profile that continues horizontally to the next window at the level of the arch ends. The stone, slightly protruding eaves cornice rests on simply sculpted corbels.
The nave is covered between the facade and the crossing with a gently sloping gable roof . The significantly higher roof of the choir group, including the south chapel, is covered with a gable roof of the same inclination, the ridge direction of which meets the corner of the tower substructure. The roof shape of the tower is a flat inclined octagonal pyramid. The roofs of all roofs are made of red clay tiles in Roman form (monk - nun). The ship and tower have “real” eaves. The eaves of the choir group are equipped with stone gutters (see above).
West facade
One aspect that is unusual for Romanesque church architecture in Saintonge is the fact that, with a few exceptions, no figural decoration is used. On the other hand, such a high level of effort was made in structuring the facade that cannot be found in any other church in the region.
Rough breakdown
The horizontal division into two storeys from the first and second storeys, in a ratio of about two to one, with an additional gable , corresponds to common practice. The horizontal structure above the ground floor is provided by a protruding cornice supported by columns and corbels. The upper floor is separated from the gable by a narrow, less protruding cornice.
Almost halfway up the ground floor, there is another horizontal band of lined up capitals and fighters and their continuations in the false portals and on the wall templates.
A vertical division into three sections takes place here only on the ground floor in a ratio of one to four to one, with the help of columns placed one on top of the other.
Fine structures
A huge six-step archivolt portal forms the center of the ground floor , precisely fitted into the central field separated by the columns. All arches have the same wide and smooth front and bottom sides. This creates an extremely deep gradation up to the portal. The front edges of the archivolts are profiled, alternating as a round rod and as a groove . On the hollow profile of the fifth archivolt, there are small cams two stones apart. The front of the sixth and outer archivolt is decorated with a geometric serrated pattern, its underside is profiled. In the inner corner of the arches sit narrow companions, dissolved in plant ornaments. The outer archivolt arch is framed with a cantilevered band with a plant structure.
The six archivolt arches sit on eleven slender round columns with capitals and warriors, which are carved deeply with elaborate plant tendrils and leaves. The capitals form a pair of stone segments that belong together, each with an archivolt end. The columns alternate with each other with smaller and larger diameters. Only the inner pair of pillars is decorated with alternately twisted fluting . Almost all of the others have been given a structure naturally through weathering. At its lower end, the columns stand on profiled bases.
The vertical separation of the ground floor rises on both sides of the large archvolt portal, in the lower area a rectangular pillar template with strongly rounded corners, on a base and with a capital and spar, in the manner and height of the group of robed columns. On it stands a round column, three quarters of its cross-section in front of the facade, made of a profiled base and figuratively designed capital, which connects under the cantilevered cornice that closes the ground floor.
The same stacking of pillars is repeated again on the facade corners. Here, however, the lower column is twice as wide. Around the corner, on the end of the facade that was also designed, there is another pillar template like the first, on which a round pillar can be seen again. A third column of the same cross-section fits seamlessly between the two above-described upper columns in the corner of the building. This results in a harmonious and intelligent design of the side facade finish, which does not stop at the corner.
The one-step archivolts - blind portals, each made of a pointed archivolt arch, two slim round columns, with bases, capitals and spars, fit perfectly between the two remaining narrow vertical façade sections, all analogous to the main portal. A band of the same width with the same ornamental structures is inserted between the capitals and the fighters. The only exception to this are the two capitals, which only feature figural plastic on the ground floor, made up of fantasy figures from the medieval world of spirits. The tympanum and the area below the band remain smooth wall masonry.
The upper horizontal end of the ground floor forms the deeply projecting cornice, the bevelled outer edge of which is decorated with a geometric ornament. The cornice rests on the pillars described above and on strong corbels. The cornice is led with the three columns and the corner on the head side of the facade wall. The corbels are L-shaped, the inner corners of which are mostly rounded, and bear figural sculptures on them, such as: a person sitting cross-legged holding an object, a portrait of an ox with horns, a mythical animal with human facial features, different torsos of humans and animals, more feminine Torso without head and others. At the same height and alternating with the corbels, the column capitals with figurative representations can be seen, above all with animal fantasy figures, intertwined with one another, and vegetal decoration. At the level of the lower edges of the capitals and the corbels, a narrow profile runs over all protruding elements. The rectangular fields formed from this profile, the cornice, the corbels and column capitals contain medallions and rosettes.
Somewhat below the cornice, four large corbels protrude from the smooth masonry surfaces, one below the other at the same height, without any facade reference. On the top, seen from the side, you have semicircular recesses in which you could imagine sturdy round wooden beams inserted, which also come past the protruding pillars. These circumstances indicate that there was a wooden construction of a protective roof or even a vestibule here or that it was once planned. There could have been a lack of space in the small church once, for example during the great pilgrimages.
On the upper floor there is a blind archway with six slender interior surfaces that jut far back almost at full floor height. The arcade arches have cross-sections in shape and size roughly like the archivolt arches on the ground floor, including their edging profiles. They merge on the fighter plates . The seventh and middle arcade, slightly wider than the others, houses a real window, very slimline with a round arch. The arcade arch has two-thirds circular recesses on the inside. The inwardly pointing “tongues” have an ornamental structure. The arcade arches are supported on groups of four slender columns, two each with a thinner and two with a thicker diameter, which carry suitable capitals and spiers, with vegetal ornamentation. On the very outside, the last arcade arch is placed on a piece of facade wall and a single column. The transom profile and that under the capitals are also shown around the corner of the facade.
The upper floor ends with an ornamentally structured, slightly protruding profile. Above that, there is only a low piece of smooth gable wall surface with a slightly protruding plate cover, with an incline of approx. 20 degrees.
Échebrune, St-Pierre, capital facade column
Échebrune, St-Pierre, capital facade column
Échebrune, St-Pierre, corbel under cornice, monster
Échebrune, St-Pierre, corbel under cornice, person sitting cross-legged
Échebrune, St-Pierre, corbel under cornice, ox head
Interior
Apart from the vaulting of the “ crossing ” and a small choir chapel on the north side, the building has lost all Romanesque and Gothic vaults.
The floor plan includes a nave, a slightly narrower square "crossing", a rectangular choir, slightly shorter than the nave, a south chapel and its side rooms separated from it, and a very small north chapel. Despite a “crossing” there is no transept .
The nave is four yokes long, which are divided on the outer walls by round columns projecting far away. Behind the pillars there are wide, rectangular cross-section pillars and in the field between each a small arched window with sloping reveals . In the south wall, an additional portal opens in the third yoke , which takes up almost the entire width between the pillars. Above it sits a round window, a so-called " ox eye ".
The "crossing" is vaulted with a trumpet dome. At the connections to the nave and the choir, the load of the dome and the tower is transferred to the walls via arches. The same arches can be seen on the two outer walls of the “crossing” as a large blind arcade , divided again by two smaller arcades in which small Romanesque windows are left open.
In the corners of the younger choir and the chapel there are still pillars that once supported the cross ribs. The windows are covered with Gothic pointed arches, the large window in the chapel with a round arched window, which is attributed to the Renaissance .
meaning
Saint-Pierre demonstrates a Romanesque west facade, which almost completely dispenses with figural decoration, but whose extraordinary refinement can be found in its particularly balanced facade structure. The extensive lack of figural sculpture in no way indicates that no skilled stonemasons were working on this construction site. Rather, the implementation of the consistent and balanced structure requires a high level of intelligence and manual skills on the part of the building master. Last but not least, the extremely filigree and profound tendril and leaf frieze structures of the archivolt capitals and their warriors prove the high level of technical perfection of the stonemasons who work here.
Stone crosses
On an almost cubic plinth immediately southwest of the church - perhaps on the former cemetery - there is a stone cross on a monolithic pillar without capital. Ultimately, one can only speculate about the age of this monument and its function in community life (possibly Hosanna cross ).
About 250 meters southwest of the church there is another imposing Calvaire with a shaft made up of ten profiled stone drums, which - without giving any reason - is dated to the 15th or 18th centuries.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Église Saint-Pierre, Échebrune in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
literature
- Thorsten Droste : Poitou. Western France between Poitiers and Angoulême - the Atlantic coast from the Loire to the Gironde . DuMont, Cologne 1999, p. 224, ISBN 3-7701-4456-2 .
Web links
- Échebrune, Saint-Pierre - photos + brief information (French)
- Échebrune, Saint-Pierre - aerial view, photo + brief information (in French)
- Échebrune, Calvaire - aerial photo + brief information (French)
Coordinates: 45 ° 34 ′ 46.5 " N , 0 ° 26 ′ 47.3" W.