St-Victor-Ste-Couronne (Ennezat)

The former collegiate church of St-Victor-Ste-Couronne in Ennezat is dedicated to the companions of saints Victor and Corona ; it is one of the most impressive medieval church buildings in Auvergne . It has been classified as a Monument historique since 1840 .

former collegiate church of St-Victor-Ste-Couronne in Ennezat

location

The church is located in the center of the town of Ennezat , which in turn is in the middle of the largely flat and fertile agricultural landscape of Limagne in the heart of Auvergne . Because of its location in the center of a former marshland that was partly drained in the Middle Ages, the church is sometimes referred to as the “Cathedral of the Marshes” (Cathédrale des marais) .

Building history

The building history of the former collegiate church is complex and its details are still unclear. The only certain news is that around 1060/70 William VIII (approx. 1025-1086), Duke of Aquitaine , sent a chapter of 12 canons to the area of Ennezat - at that time still interspersed with swamps - around here dry and build a church. For a long time it was believed that the three-aisled nave and transept of this church, which was probably completed before the year 1100, were still preserved. Thus the collegiate church of Ennezat would be at the beginning of the great Auvergnatian church buildings of the 12th century ( Notre-Dame-du-Port de Clermont-Ferrand , St-Austremoine d'Issoire , Notre-Dame d'Orcival, etc.)

In the 13th century, the Romanesque ambulatory choir of the old church building, including its radial chapels, was demolished in order to build a Gothic choir, in keeping with contemporary tastes. The demolition and rebuilding of the nave were also planned, but the necessary funds were probably not available.

architecture

Stone material

The stone material used for the west building and later for the choir is dark lava rock ( andesite ), which is interspersed with arkose . While the buttresses and other important parts of the building are made of angularly hewn stones, large parts of the wall surfaces of the west building consist of light, barely worked gray wacke. The main parts of the nave and the nave wall of the choir are plastered.

inner space

Narthex

The west facade is part of a structure - with several storeys on the inside - which is separated from the actual church space by its larger dimensions and better stone processing both inside and outside. It is a narthex , as can be found in many Burgundian churches. The function of such a narthex - usually two-story inside and therefore not very high in the entrance area - is controversial: some believe that it served as a place for spiritual gathering before entering the church, others see it as a meeting place for processions or a place to sleep for pilgrims. But it could also be that such a massive structure primarily served defensive purposes or was erected for the purpose of static stabilization of the structure to the west.

Former collegiate church of Ennezat - Romanesque nave with a view of the Gothic choir

Longhouse

As in the Middle Ages, you enter the church through an entrance on the south side of the nave, which is framed by a multi-tiered portal wall with slightly sharpened archivolts . The central nave of the church, which is only 3.75 meters wide and 13.30 meters high, is barrel-vaulted - but without belt arches - and has a high and wide-open gallery (one also speaks of 'tribunes'), which is supported by mighty pillars with accompanying half-columns. Inside the galleries, quarter tons support the tall ship wall. The side aisles, which are only about 2.10 meters wide and 6.20 meters high, are divided into yokes by intermediate arches; these have groin vaults .

Capitals

Most of the capitals of the nave are decorated with simple, sometimes more complicated, leaf motifs. Figurative capitals are the exception - one shows a usurer with a wallet around his neck, who is seized by two demons with foliage around his waist. A Latin inscription reads: “Cando usuram acepisti opera mea fecisti” - roughly translated: “When you practiced usury, you did my work”. The other figurative capitals show hybrids and animals (centaurs, sirens, griffins, etc.).

Crossing

The crossing area is separated from the nave, transepts and choir by window-like arches and raised inside - in such cases one speaks of a 'separated crossing', or - in the case of many church buildings in the Auvergne - of an Auvergnat cross bar or a massif barlong . The actual Vierungsjoch ends at the top with a dome resting on trumpets . Above this rises the crossing tower , which is definitely from the 12th century.

Choir

The three-aisled Gothic ambulatory choir with its illuminated chapel wreath is significantly higher than the nave and is almost twice as wide as this one and about as long. Up-and-coming bundles of services that end in rib vaults and large tracery windows that let plenty of light into the church are the characteristic features of Gothic architecture, as can also be found in the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption cathedral in Clermont-Ferrand . The four keystones of the vault show u. a. the Archangel Michael , a bishop and a crowned person (perhaps Louis the Saint )

Frescoes

In the south transept there is a Gothic fresco (approx. 1405) depicting the Last Judgment . On the right as seen from the viewer, i.e. H. to the left of Christ is a wide throat of hell, but it seems that most of those who have risen from their graves turn to Christ in the middle. On both sides of Christ one recognizes the 12 apostles; Mary has a place of honor on his right. On the far left, the founders , a married couple, had their portrait portrayed.

In the choir there is another - two-part - fresco (approx. 1420): One of them shows a representation of a courtly hunting party consisting of three people, the - on the other side of a cross in the middle - three emaciated skeletons, some of which are still carry their shrouds around their shoulders. So, in a sense, the well-dressed nobles are confronted with their own death. In the fresco below, noble persons kneel on the left, clerics on the right; in the middle there is a raised throne seat on which - hardly recognizable - the crowned Mother of God Maria sits with the Christ child on her lap. The inscription between the two frescoes mentions the canon Robert de Bassinhac as the founder of the fresco.

Both frescoes can be understood as vanitas symbols.

Exterior construction

West facade

As with many churches in the center and in the south of France, the west facade has no tower. It is divided into three vertical parts by four buttresses . In the middle part there is an entrance with a tympanum-like field with stone incrustations; above a wheel window - designed as a six-pass - and at the very top a large arched window. The two side registers each show a round window next to the typanon field of the central portal and two further small round windows in the upper zone. All round arches of the facade show a change in color of the stones used. How much of the design of the west facade is original and what parts of the imagination of the 19th century are left open.

Longhouse

The Romanesque nave with its large blind arcades and small window openings, the upper ones of which illuminate the galleries, is - with the exception of the buttresses - plastered and shows no decoration.

Crossing tower

The two-storey octagonal crossing tower is opened on all sides by arcade arches. In the lower part there are set columns as a frame for the arcades; at the top, however, there are half-columns in front of the corners. Its function was probably that of a bell tower from the start. It ends in an octagonal pointed helmet covered with red roof tiles. While the age of the nave is still a mystery, the details of the crossing tower clearly date back to the 12th century.

Choir head

The lower storey of the Gothic choir, which has many tracery windows, is made entirely of dark volcanic rock ( arkose ). The upper storey, on the other hand, is largely plastered - extremely unusual for Gothic church buildings in France, as these were usually built entirely from stone. The lack of buttresses for static stabilization of the nave wall is also unusual.

meaning

Despite the ongoing dispute over the dating of the nave, in which many researchers recognize typical features of the 12th century and find it difficult to date it to the end of the 11th century, the former collegiate church of Ennezat is one - for the Auvergne and even for all of France - exceptional construction. This fact was also recognized by its inclusion in the very first list of Monuments historiques in 1840.