Ste-Croix (Veauce)
The Romanesque church of Sainte-Croix is located in the small municipality of Veauce in the French region of Auvergne ( Allier department ), on the little river Veauce , which flows into the Sioule at Ebreuil , about 45 kilometers north of Clermont-Ferrand . Its harmoniously designed choir head rises against the backdrop of the leafy castle park with its old trees, the former seat of the sovereigns of Veauce , a very old family whose descendants lived there until a few years ago.
The church stands on the plan of a Latin cross , with a trunk, the nave , which was halved on two yokes in the late 18th century , the cross arms, as wide-spreading transept arms and a head, from a rather rare ambulatory choir without a chapel wreath . Her nave has three aisles, and two of her four yokes are still left.
Its builder had directed his gaze to the Romanesque masterpieces of Limagne , with their traditional construction methods and forms, but he did not copy them, but interpreted them in his own way. Bernard Craplet, a French art historian and author, describes Sainte-Croix de Veauce as “One of the most beautiful churches of the Bourbonnais today, one of the most auvergnatic but with a personal touch that increases its charm.”
History
Almost nothing is known about the dates of their construction, but they are likely to be in the 11th century. Their emergence is just as likely to be attributed to the generosity of the family of the lords of Veauce mentioned at the beginning. However, it is certain that a knight Aimo de Veauce entrusted the church of Veauce to the neighboring abbey of Saint-Léger in neighboring Ebreuil in 1080 . This donation was confirmed by Pope Paschal II around 1115 . The parish of Veauce belonged to the former diocese of Clermont.
Today's building reveals, however, that the church was built in two successive campaigns, first of all the choir head together with the transept, which were built in one go. They show a very homogeneous style and represent the most beautiful part of the church. The influence of the Romanesque Limagne is unmistakable.
The long house created in the second campaign is less typical. There is some evidence of a change in the responsible builder or stonemason. For example, the stone processing in the choir is different than in the nave. In the choir yoke, the stone blocks have a fern frond pattern, but in the nave only inclined grooves. In the latter, the drums of the half-columns are laid uniformly one above the other, but in the crossing, every second drum has a rear extension into the pier core. In the head of the choir there are numerous stones with stonemason marks, none in the nave. The column bases of the nave with corner leaves suggest that it was built later.
When the church was placed in the hands of the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Saint-Léger de Ebreuil towards the end of the 11th century , pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago to Santiago de Compostela in Spain began. It was above all monks , like the Benedictines here , who slipped into the role of prudent actors by promoting the pilgrimage and actively taking the organization into their own hands.
At that time, the building was designed as a pilgrimage church, with side aisles and a spacious ambulatory , which allowed the exhibition of relics, even without chapel extensions , which the pilgrims had set out to worship. After all, there were two transept chapels. Saint-Croix de Veauce was just under 14 kilometers west of the section of the pilgrimage route (now the N7 and N9) that ran from Nevers to Clemont in an almost straight line and opened up the entire Auvergne region with numerous pilgrimage churches.
The heyday of the pilgrimage to Santiago dates back to the first half of the 12th century, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims traveled south every year. Numerous new churches, monasteries, hospices, hostels and cemeteries were built along these paths, and existing facilities were expanded to meet the new requirements. For a pilgrimage church, above all, more space was needed for the numerous pilgrims , such as the ambulatory and side aisles, and as many chapels as possible for the presentation of relics and their veneration. At that time, the pilgrimage churches also often served as overnight accommodation for pilgrims.
When the quarrels between France and England over Aquitaine began after the middle of the 12th century , the pilgrimage declined. The wars of the 13th and 14th centuries Century, such as the Hundred Years War (1339-1453), brought a dramatic slump.
It cannot be ruled out that the bell tower of Saint-Croix , like many churches in the region, was crowned with a pointed spire in the Gothic era , around the 13th century , perhaps even made of stone, as in Notre-Dame de Châtel-Montagne .
Towards the end of the 14th century, a collegiate foundation (sometimes referred to as a collegiate chapter) was founded by a Jean Bessoles in honor of the patron saint Saint-Venerandus (around 385 Bishop of Clermont ), which lasted almost 400 years. In 1766 the chapter was dissolved.
In 1797, eight years after the French Revolution (1789), the nave of Saint-Croix was cut in half, that is, it lost the first two of the four yokes up to then. The sources do not reveal the causes of this “mutilation” of the building, such as a collapse due to natural subsoil conditions or willful tearing due to the conditions of the post-revolutionary period. The closure of the nave, which was opened over the entire elevation, in the same year with a new, unusually massive gable wall and huge buttresses, suggests the first-mentioned causes.
If Saint-Croix had a stone gothic spire, it would have been torn down during the revolution or shortly afterwards. That is at least the case for the upper floor of the crossing tower, the renovation of which is dated to 1882. Presumably the first floor was also restored at this time.
The poor source situation of Sainte-Croix de Veauce in the past is not getting any better now.
Building
Dimensions
(approximate dimensions, measured from the sketch and extrapolated, without pillar templates)
- Total length inside, today: 22.5 m, in the 11th century: 30.5 m
- Overall length outside, today: 24.5 m, in the 11th century: 32.0 m
- Inner length of the nave, today: 7.3 m, in the 11th century: 15.0 m
- Width of the nave, inside: 10.5 m, outside: 12.5 m
- Central nave width (between the partitions): 4.4 m
- Transept length, inside: 21.5 m, outside: 23.0 m
- Inside transept width: 4.9 m
- Choir width: 4.4 m
- Width choir + gallery, inside: 10.4 m, outside: 16.4 m
- Choir length inside: 6.0 m
- Length of choir + passage, inside: 10.0 m
- Height of the central nave, under the top of the vault: 12.3 m
- Height of the choir arcades: 6.9 m
Outward appearance
The church of Saint-Croix was built almost entirely with large-format, light-colored blocks made of limestone in a regular bond. Only on the walls of the transept can there be found sections of masonry made of small-format rubble stones in an irregular bond, the remnants of which are still preserved from the former plaster. The structural elements facing south and east have predominantly a light yellow to orange-colored patina. On the other hand, there are light to dark gray weathering traces on the northern and western component areas.
Longhouse
The nave that is preserved today has been only half as long since 1779 as before. The last two yokes three and four of the original structure have been preserved in it. It is on the plan of a rectangle, the long sides of which run across the longitudinal axis of the church. It is divided into three aisles, the middle one is almost twice as wide as the side aisles. Its elevation is that of a pseudo-basilica , in which the central nave rises significantly higher than the side aisles, but remains without a windowed upper aisle and accommodates all the aisles under a shared gable roof with an incline of about 30 degrees.
The roof is covered with red hollow tiles in Roman format, which are also called monk-nun tiles. The overhang of the eaves is considerable. The pointed rafter ends of the roof structure lie on the south side on strong horizontal cornice panels , the outer visible sides of which are decorated with a chessboard and toothed frieze , over which the eaves barely protrude. The rainwater can drip off freely here without gutters. The slabs are supported by corbels that are just as wide , some of which are planed chipboard , others are decorated with figurative sculptures . On the underside of the cornice panels, large-area geometric motifs are worked into circles, such as flower petals, rosettes, suns, spirals, flat rhombuses. But their relief is barely noticeable. On the northern eaves all decorations of the cornice panels and corbels, which are extremely simple here, are missing.
The walls of the aisles do not reveal, as is usual, the inner yoke division opposite the pillars and / or belt arches of the vaults . These are the former yokes three and four. At their eastern ends, they are bounded by rectangular buttresses, projecting a good 1.5 meters, which originally stood as an extension of the inner division of yokes two and three. Whether these pillars formerly faced inner belt arches cannot be seen, but it is quite likely. They reach up to under the eaves cornice panels, are sloping at the top of the roof and are covered with panels that are closed off by transom profiles. Presumably there were such or similar buttresses as an extension of the former western facade wall.
In contrast to the internal division into two bays, the outer sides of these wall sections become the aisles. between the western transept walls and the aforementioned buttresses, filled with three high blind arcades , almost equally wide , with niche depths of almost half a meter. The apex of the arches reach a good 50 centimeters below the corbels of the eaves. The semicircular arches with right-angled (sharp) edges stand united on two strong three-quarter-round columns , which are equipped with stylized foliage carved capitals , profiled fighter plates and bases , and with right-angled plinths . The arch next to the buttress stands on the pillar side on a slender semicircular column with the same equipment. The arch next to the transept wall stands on a protruding section of this wall that is supported by twin arcades (see section transept). The three pillars on the south side stand on a continuous plinth protruding from the wall, the upper edge of which is a good meter above the threshold of the door in the third blind arcade and which ends just behind the third pillar. In the lower area it is almost a meter thick, above the simple gradation only about 50 centimeters. The slightly inclined terrain level of the surrounding area touches the foot of the base. This base is missing on the north side of the nave. In the upper half of the two outer blind arcades, slender, arched windows are cut out, while that in the third arcade is slightly offset from its axis to the west. The walls of the windows are widened outwards. The edges of the drapery are broken laterally and at the top by small, right-angled setbacks into which weak round bars are inserted. In the third blind arcade, the round-arched door of a side entrance is recessed off-center, with a clear offset to the eastern edge of the arcade.
The north wall of the nave is almost completely covered by the addition of a sacristy in modern times . The slightly rectangular floor plan is inserted into the angle between the nave and the northern arm of the transept and is covered by a pent roof inclined at around 45 degrees , the ridge of which extends up under the corbels of the nave eaves. Its overhanging eaves is just below the parapet height of the only remaining window in the nave. The roof is covered with red flat beaver tail shingles and is drained via a hanging gutter. A brick chimney rises up from the pent roof ridge next to the west wall and extends over the eaves of the nave.
The sacristy is accessed via a rectangular door in the north wall. On the west wall of the sacristy there are two rectangular window openings arranged one above the other, the lower one is slightly larger than the upper one, which opens into a kind of storage room.
The remaining section of the north wall of the nave shows about two thirds of the first blind arcade, the arch of which stands on the pillar side on the slender column described above. According to the floor plan of the church, the next two blind arcades in the interior of the sacristy must still be preserved, as well as the twin blind arcades on the west wall of the north arm of the transept.
Since 1779, the nave has been closed in the west between the former bays two and three with a sturdy gable wall just under 1.50 meters thick . The 50 cm on the outside of this wall protrudes only slightly over the roof surface of the nave with the same inclination and is covered with flat panels that only protrude towards the roof. At the ends of the gable wall, which cover the eaves, are massive buttresses with a cross-section of around 1.4 meters square in the lower area. They reach up to the lower ends of the gable tops, step back a little on the outside about halfway up and are steeply sloping outwards at their upper ends.
The choice of such a massive construction for the new nave end suggests that the first two yokes of the nave threatened to collapse due to static problems in the building ground and therefore had to be demolished as a precaution. The building material for the gable wall was probably taken from the demolition.
The new main portal is covered by an arch made of slightly curved arch stones. It is flanked on both sides with a little distance from three-quarter round columns, which are equipped with vegetable carved capitals and profiled fighter plates. They stand on rectangular, knee-high plinths. The pillars very likely come from the blind arcades of the broken wall sections of the nave. The arch stones are covered with an equally profiled cantilever profile between the fighters. Above the main portal, at the level of the bevels of the buttresses, there is a circular ox-eye - also called an oculus - with a diameter of about one meter, which is framed by arch stones flush with the surface.
Transept with crossing tower
Contrary to the usual transept design in Limagne, the master builder made considerable simplifications here, and above all dispensed with the massif barlong with the stepped vaults and flying buttresses.
The transept protrudes with its arms opposite the outer walls of the nave and the ambulatory by about 5.6 meters on both sides, without the pillars. The transept floor plan consists of the almost square crossing, to which the crossing aisles and the transept arms of the same height connect on both sides, the east and west walls of which are an extension of the respective crossing walls. The side aisles and transept arms are each covered together by a gable roof with an incline of about 30 degrees, the eaves of which are approximately at the level of the nave ridge and the ridge of which hits it just below the upper edge of the base of the crossing tower. The roofing and eaves formation corresponds to that of the nave. The corbels are designed in different ways, including animal masks, grinning grimaces and, again and again, with planed chipboard. The most beautiful sculpture is highlighted, the head of a fox holding a bread with a cross in its mouth. It is found at the outer end of the cornice on the west side of the north arm of the transept.
The verges of the gable walls of the transept arms extend at the top with the same inclination over their roofs somewhat. They are covered with flat panels that only protrude slightly on the roof side and are terminated at their lower ends with transom profiles. The verge ridge is crowned by a stone cross in the form of a "paw cross " of the Knights Templar .
On the outer vertical edges of the transept arms there are buttresses pointing in the longitudinal and transverse direction with cross-sections of around 80 centimeters square, which reach up to around two meters below the aforementioned cantilever profiles. Their tops are steeply sloping outwards. Above these pillar ends, the gable walls are so wide that they just cover the ends of the eaves. Between the buttresses, they are horizontally divided into two storeys at about the height of the eaves of the nave, on the south side with a protruding wall that is covered by flat stone slabs that are bevelled outwards and protrude slightly. On the north side the protrusion is covered with a strip of red hollow tiles, as can be found on the roof surfaces.
The ground floor is decorated by two blind arcades, whose semicircular arches with sharp arched edges stand united on a three-quarter-round column, which are equipped like the columns on the nave, but instead of plinths, the base stands on a square pedestal about half a meter high. In the arch area, the arcade niche is about 50 centimeters deep. The apex of the arch is just the width of the wedge arches below the offset that divides the floors. The arch reveals merge into the pillars on the outside, the beginnings of which are marked with transom profiles. On the upper floor, a slender, arched window is cut out exactly in the middle, just above the aforementioned offset. Its wedge arch is covered on the outside by a cantilever profile with a simple roller frieze, which swings horizontally at the level of the arches and extends up to the pillars.
On the west walls of the transept, buttresses protrude above the roofs of the nave and below the eaves, which are an extension of the arches that separate the vaults of the transept arms from those of the aisles of the crossing. They are very steeply sloping downwards and merge below the nave eaves into the outer walls of the nave. On the east walls there are also buttresses at the same point, but they do not widen downwards. They merge into the walls of the ambulatory below the roof areas.
The west walls of the transept arms are again divided horizontally into two storeys between the outer walls of the nave and the outer buttresses, albeit significantly lower than on the gable walls. The projecting section dividing the floors is approximately at the level of the crossbars of the blind arcades of the outer walls of the nave, which are covered with projecting cornice panels and which are in turn covered at an angle by red hollow bricks. The ground floor will be decorated again with two blind arcades, which correspond to those of the gable walls, but whose column is significantly shorter. Its square console is also missing here. Just above the storey-dividing offset there is another arched window, from significantly smaller, almost slit-like, which is covered by the same cantilever profile with a roller frieze and led horizontally up to the buttresses. On the west wall of the north arm of the transept, the blind arcades have disappeared behind the addition of the sacristy, apart from a small section of a stone arch.
In the sources, the double blind arcades on the west side of the transept arms are emphasized as a specialty of Veauce .
On the east side of the transept arms are built chapels, over which the same window slits are arranged as opposite. The chapels are dealt with in the “Choir Head” section.
The entire transept area on the south side of the church with its pillar templates and column bases stands on a circumferential plinth, the upper edge of which is just under a meter above the doorstep of the side entrance, i.e. above the floor of the nave.
The two-story crossing bell tower has a not quite square floor plan. Its plinth, which is closed on all sides, protrudes just above the roofs of the roofs of the transept and the choir and is closed on the top by a broad cantilever profile, the lower edge of which is broken with a wide valley . The trumpet dome of the crossing is hidden in it .
The lower floor has largely been preserved in its original form, but was restored at the end of the 19th century . Its wall surfaces recede somewhat compared to those of the base. It is closed on the top by a cantilever profile, which is the same as the one above the base. Its vertical component edges are broken by strong setbacks on each side of the wall. On each side of the tower there are two twin blind arcades, which are separated by a narrow section of wall and bordered on the outside by somewhat wider sections. Their vertices reach up to about two thirds of the floor height. Their sharp-edged semicircular arches stand together in pairs on a three-quarter-round column, which is equipped with simply carved capitals, protruding, profiled warriors and bases. The pairs of arches stand on the outside on semicircular columns which are set backwards from the wall and are equipped as above. The transom profiles each extend a little onto the side wall sections. On the west side of the tower, just below the upper cantilever profile, a gargoyle with a U-shaped cross-section is installed, which is obviously intended to drain the floor ceiling drawn in at this height from the penetrating driving rain.
The upper storey is about as high as the lower one and is closed on the top by a cantilever profile, the visible edge of which is rounded and divided into several grooves. Three wall pillars are raised to just below the top cantilever profile, flush with the wall surface of the lower storey, and the top beveled to the outside. The pillars are the same width as the wall sections to the side of the twin blind arcades on the first floor. At the component corners, the back offsets from the lower storey to the pier ends are adopted. The wall surface above the arcades recedes by the depth of the setbacks up to the upper end profile. Between each two pillars, pairs of sound arcades open into the bell chamber, the passages of which are slightly larger than the blind arcades below. Here, too, their vertices reach up to about two thirds of the floor height. The reveals of the arcade arches stand in pairs in their entire wall thickness on two columns arranged one behind the other, which are equipped with plant-carved capitals, profiled fighters and bases. The outer arch reveals merge into the vertical reveals of the pillars. Their arches are marked with fighters, whose profiles resemble those of the fighters above the pillars and continue around the pillars.
The bell tower is covered by a flat sloping pyramid-shaped roof, which is covered with red hollow tiles like the other roofs. The dark rafter heads with eaves cladding on top in the same color lie on the cantilever profile, over which the eaves tiles protrude slightly.
Choir head with ambulatory choir and transept chapels
Like the transept, the choir head dispenses with some characteristic elements of the Auvergne Auvergne, such as radial chapels, roofs protruding gables, mosaic decorations ( incrustations ), or rectangular niches with columns, due to the lack of the massif barlong .
On the stone blocks of the choir head there are numerous stonemason's marks , especially the letters B and E.
The choir stands on a ground plan consisting of a rectangle, on the slightly longer side of which is connected a semicircle, that is, a choir yoke and a choir apse. It is covered by a flat, sloping gable roof that merges into the curve of a half- conical roof without any caesura . The roof is covered like the roofs of the nave and transept. Its eaves are just below that of the transept and are designed like them. This also applies to the sculpture of the corbels.
The walls of the choir protrude far out of the surrounding monopitch roof of the ambulatory. The flat walls of the choir bay are bounded laterally by a half buttress with an almost square cross-section in the angle between the choir and transept wall, and on the apse side by a rectangular buttress that pushes exactly between two corbels under the eaves and ends with its visible edge. The curved apse wall is divided into three sections by two semicircular columns, which end at the top with a whole layer of wall under the corbels of the eaves. However, they are positioned in such a way that a former continuation of the columns, past the corbels, would have been possible to under the cornice. A wide capital would not have fitted here. But it is not unlikely that the pillars were never raised higher. In the wall sections, standing directly on the monopitch roof ridge, a slender, round-arched window is cut out, the wedge-shaped arches of which are enclosed on the outside by a cantilever profile with a simple roller frieze, which bends horizontally at the height of the arches and is guided over all pillars and columns. The window in the middle section is centered, while the window in the neighboring sections is clearly offset towards the choir yoke.
The ambulatory concentrically surrounds the choir apse and the choir bay. Six almost square buttresses stand radially opposite the inner columns of the choir apse and, after an upper bevel, reach under the eaves, where they fit exactly between two corbels. They divide the outer wall of the gallery into seven wall sections, two flat and five slightly curved. The pillars stand on a circumferential base, the upper edge of which is slightly higher than that of the base in front of the southern arm of the transept. The flat, sloping pent roof is covered like the choir. The formation of the eaves also corresponds to that of the choir. Somewhat larger windows are recessed in the middle of the five curved wall fields, which present the same decor with a cantilevered profile with a roller frieze as in the choir windows, which run around the whole area.
The transept chapels directly adjoining the ambulatory have a semicircular outline on the outside, on which their walls stand. They are covered by a gently sloping half conical roof that is covered like the choir. The eaves formation corresponds to that of the ambulatory, but only chipboard crags are used. The curved walls are divided into three sections by two semicircular columns, of which the circumferential wall is largely covered by the circumferential wall. The columns butt against individual corbels on the underside and were therefore never brought under the eaves. Only in the middle section of the wall of the chapels is there a smaller round-arched window. Its Keilsteinbogen is covered by the same cantilever profile with a roller frieze, swiveled horizontally at the ends and led around the entire chapel apse.
Interior
In the interior of Sainte-Croix, the first thing you notice is the intense darkness, even when the sun is shining. Particularly in the nave and transept, the number and size of the windows is stingy. With the exception of the small “ox eye” in the west wall, the central nave has no direct windowing and is only indirectly lit through a total of three small windows in the side aisles via relatively small arcade openings. The crossing and its aisles also have no direct window exposure. The two individual windows in the transept gable walls are far away.
Longhouse
The nave, or its half preserved from the original structure, is divided into three naves and two bays. The pseudo-basilical elevation does not have any windowed upper cladding. The central nave is a good one and a half times as wide as the side aisles and is covered by a slightly pointed, plastered barrel vault without a belt arch between the yokes. The vault approaches are marked on the long sides by a cantilever profile with quarter-round visible sides. This vault is described in the sources as "probably (in the upper part) rebuilt". Stone-sighted traces of the original vault are preserved next to the arcade arch to the crossing. The curvature of the current vault is not concentric with the curve.
The partition walls between the aisles are about as thick as the outer walls of the aisles and each rest on two round arched arcades, the wedge-shaped arches of which stand on semicircular old services, which are strengthened with capitals, some of which are decorated with a flat relief of stylized foliage or not at all Fighters are equipped with wide beveled visible edges and profiled bases on rectangular bases. The square pillar cores between the arcades are flush on both sides with the rising partition walls. The transept-side services are hidden in front of the cores of the crossing piers, which are slightly wider than the partitions that push against them. The services on the west wall of the nave are overlaid against the remains of the former square pillar cores in the dimensions of the partition walls, which protrude only slightly from the west wall.
The side aisles are covered by plastered half barrel vaults without belt arches separating the yoke. This is all the more astonishing as semicircular services were ready on both sides to support them. These end today at the height where the lower edges of the other capitals of the arcades are. The fact that capitals and arches ever existed can in all probability be ruled out, as no traces of capitals and arches can be found above the services. It is possible that these were planned once, but later turned out to be unnecessary and therefore never existed.
On the long outer walls of the side aisles, step-like consoles are arranged one step at a time, a total of almost one meter high and two by 50 centimeters overhanging, a very unusual structural arrangement. The services with their bases and plinths stand on them. They find their equivalent in the ambulatory, on the outer walls of which a console with the dimensions of about 50 × 100 centimeters surrounds, on which services are also located. In the sources it is assumed that the inner brackets together with the outer brackets could have represented constructive fixings of the building foundations. Since the builders of this church have shown themselves to be open to architectural innovations, one could imagine that these consoles, in addition to static reinforcement, could also be offered to pilgrims as a welcome seat. But perhaps they could also have served inside the building as a replacement for the wreath chapels where relics were exhibited. Sculptures, a crucifix and associated floral decorations can still be found there today.
In the lateral outer walls of the side aisles, one on the north side and two slender, round-arched windows are recessed on the south side, the wedge-shaped arches of which extend up around a layer of wall under the vaults. When the sacristy was added, the affected window was walled up. The garments are widened inwards on all sides. Generous setbacks are set in the lateral edges of the drapery, in which slender columns are set, which are equipped with simply shaped capitals, profiled spars and bases.
In the northwest corner of the north aisle are the remains of a Gothic tomb, which is believed to have come from the neighboring cemetery. In addition, sculpted stones with depictions of animals are shown, the place of origin of which is not known.
The west wall of the nave has two centered openings only in the area of the central nave, with walls that are almost 1.50 meters deep inwardly. It is the two-winged main portal, which is covered with a staggered lintel. Just under two meters above is the lower edge of the circular “ox eye”, which is surrounded by wedge stones.
In the east, the nave meets the west wall of the transept. The large crossing arcade opens up in the central nave, which barely restricts the inner cross-section of the central nave. On the square pillar cores protruding just opposite the partition walls, old semicircular services are faded in, which reach up to the cantilever profiles at the height of the vaults. They are crowned by simply designed capitals and broad, strong fighter plates, the visible edges of which are decorated with a high relief, made up of a series of intertwined, strongly protruding discs, arranged alternately horizontally and vertically. This motif can also be found on the portal of Saint-Léger d'Èbreuil and in some neighboring churches. A round arch made of wedge stones stands on top of the fighters and is slightly stepped on the crossing side. The services stand on profiled bases and rectangular plinths.
The east ends of the side aisles open with arched arcades to the side aisles of the crossing. The slightly stilted wedge stone arches with sharp edges stand on semicircular services, which are hidden on one side of the side aisle wall and on the other side of the crossing pillar core. They are equipped with capitals, battlements, bases and plinths similar to those of the arcades of the partitions and placed at the same level.
Gallery longhouse
Crossing and choir from central nave
South. Aisle from the central nave
Leaf capital, south arcade of partition wall
From the south aisle to the front
Transept with crossing
Contrary to the usual transept design in Limagne, the master builder made considerable simplifications here, and above all dispensed with the massive barlong with the graduated vaults and flying buttresses.
The slightly rectangular crossing is surrounded by four large arcades and pillars, as described in the previous section, penultimate paragraph, as a crossing arcade. The edges of the arcades are slightly stepped on the inside, which was never the case with the main churches of Limagne. The crossing arcades carry a dome built over corner trumpets . These trumpets , which end with triangular plates, are typical for the Auvergne. The trumpets lead the almost square plan of the crossing over to the slightly higher octagon of the dome edge. The edge of the dome is marked here by a narrow layer of stone that rounds off the corners of the octagon. From there upwards, the initially octagonal shape merges almost imperceptibly into the shape of the dome, which is completely plastered.
The adjacent aisles of the crossing are as wide as the aisles of the nave. Like the adjoining arms of the transept, they are covered by barrel vaults running across the longitudinal axis of the church. At the height of the vault approaches, there is only the change of material between stone-faced masonry and the plastered vaults. The transept aisles and the transept arms are separated by arcades made of sharp-edged belt arches and right-angled wall pillars. Their arch approaches are marked with fighter profiles.
In the upper halves of the gable walls of the crossing arms, a round-arched window is cut out, which is exactly centered and designed on the inside as large as the windows in the nave. On the west and east sides of the transept arms, a little deeper than the windows of the gable walls, clearly smaller, almost slit-like arched windows are recessed.
The arched arcades of the transept chapels open into the east walls of the transept arms . These stand on the inside on a semicircular floor plan, which is followed by a short rectangle. It is vaulted by half a spherical cap followed by a short barrel vault. The vaults are plastered over their approaches. Below the dome approaches, small, arched windows are recessed in the center, which are designed like the windows of the nave. At the level of the lower edge of the parapet, a cantilevered profile with a sloping lower edge runs around the apse, on which various items could be placed.
Gallery transept and crossing
Crossing from below, choir above
Trumpet dome from transept
Capitals on north-west crossing piers
From the north aisle into the transept
Choir head
The floor plan of the choir consists of an almost square choir yoke and a semicircular choir apse up to its vault. The curve of the apse is encircled by five slender arcades made up of six columns, which are equipped with simply designed capitals with square cover plates molded on the top, with transoms, the lower visible edges of which are beveled, with profiled bases and square plinths. The capitals are at the same height as the arcades of the partition walls in the nave. The semicircular arcade arches with sharp edges are about two meters high. These arcades are joined on both sides of the choir bay by a further arcade the width of the bay, the somewhat stilted arches of which stand on the outer pillars and on services that are hidden in front of the crossing pillars. The apex of these arcades coincides with that of the apse. A layer of wall over the wedge arches of the arcades runs in the apse curve, a wall offset that is covered with slightly cantilevered panels. On this offset, a row of five small blind arcades rises exactly above the lower arcades, with wedge arches of about the same width. These stand on six pillars, which are equipped and designed similar to the pillars on the ground floor, only significantly smaller. In the middle and the two outer blind arcades, small round-arched windows are left open, the walls of which are widened inwards on all sides. In the choir bay, the sides of the upper floor are closed with smooth masonry. The plastered vaulted surfaces begin with a layer of masonry over the wedge arches of the upper floor, over the choir bay as a semicircular barrel, over the apse in the form of a half spherical cap .
The ambulatory concentrically surrounds the apse curvature, merges into straight aisle sections next to the choir bay and is enclosed by a strong outer wall that pushes against the eastern transept wall on both sides of the choir bay. Radially opposite the pillars of the choir apse, old semicircular services, which are equipped similar to the aforementioned pillars, are faded in on the outer wall. With their profiled bases and right-angled plinths, they stand on a pedestal around one meter high that surrounds the entire gallery. A round arched window is cut out between the services, which is structurally roughly the same as the windows in the nave walls, but in slightly smaller dimensions. The height of their fighter plates corresponds to that of the neighboring services. On the lower edge of the bevels of the window parapets, a horizontal cantilever ledge around the entire outer wall of the corridor, the lower edge of which is broken with a wide groove. In the area of the windows, the profile widens by the depth of the setbacks. Relics could have been erected here in the period of pilgrimages in the absence of wreath chapels. Today, in addition to the services, a number of sculptures are shown on individual consoles on the outer wall sections, as was certainly the case with relics back then.
The walkway is covered by a concentric, plastered barrel vault, the apex of which is arranged approximately at the level of the apex of the choir arcades. The wedge arches of these arcades are joined by short stab caps with the same curvature in a radial arrangement . The choir apse arcades on the outer wall correspond to significantly wider but equally high blind arcades, whose arches are also stilted. They have the same but larger stitch caps. The plastered stab caps on both sides of the gallery intersect with the barrel vault with parabolic ridges in the plan . These ridges end on the edges of the arched stilts above the capitals of the columns and services. The vaulted sections above the straight sections of the gallery next to the choir bay are each covered with a groin vault that connects to the curved barrel vault. Here, too, the ridges merge into the edges of the arched stilts.
Gallery choir head
Choir from crossing
Choir apse to SO
Chapter choir apse
Choir apse to NO
literature
- Bernard Craplet: Romanesque Auvergne . Echter Verlag , Würzburg 1992, ISBN 3-429-01463-8 , pp. 237–241, pictures pp. 82–83, color table p. 235
Web links
Coordinates: 46 ° 9 '53.2 " N , 3 ° 3' 24.4" E