St-Léonard-de-Noblat
The collegiate church of St-Léonard-de-Noblat stands in the middle of the old town of the city of the same name . The commune is located in the Haute-Vienne in the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine .
Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat is located at the junction of an important road from Bourges to Bordeaux over the Vienne , which existed before the Roman conquest . The bridge south of the city, the Pont-de-Noblat , dates from the 13th century. In the Middle Ages , a castle owned by the Bishop of Limoges was tasked with controlling this road. In the 12th century it became an important stage on the Via Lemovicensis , one of the four main French sections on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela .
history
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The origins of the city of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat , with it the establishment of the collegiate church of the same name (fr. Collégiale ), has its origins in the life story of St. Leonhard von Limoges (fr. Saint-Léonard ), which was first handed down orally , then was first written down in the 11th century. The text of the biography has the character of a legend .
The place had developed much earlier around the grave of the widely venerated saint. He was mentioned in the chronicle of Ademar von Chabannes as early as 1010, who was a monk in the Abbey of Saint-Martial in Limoges .
Leonhard was born towards the end of the 5th century and raised at the court of the Merovingians . Clovis I (466-511) is said to have been his godfather . According to his biography, the Archbishop Remigius of Reims (440-534) baptized and raised him . Filled with pity, the young Leonhard examined regularly prisoners, and said successful for their release at Clovis I, or its successor Clotaire I. before. In the early 6th century he turned down the offer of bishopric in order to retire as a hermit in the solitude of the Pauvain forest not far from Limoges. From his cell he began to preach for the sick and the needy. He is said to have achieved considerable success there as a miracle healer and was widely respected.
Leonhard came to property after he had rescued the heavily pregnant wife of the king. The royal couple hunted in the woods of Limoges, but the queen was in labor and began to scream terribly. Leonhard heard the screams and hurried to the queen's aid. He saved her and her child's life. The king - presumably it was also King Clovis I - wanted to thank Leonhard with wealth. But he only asked for as much forest area as he could ride around with his donkey in one night. The king also granted the wish. Leonhard did not stay alone on his land for long. He founded extensive agriculture, with the proceeds of which he could buy back "renegades" in order to get them back on track and who could then work there. In this way he became the “liberator of the prisoners”. In memory of the royal donation, the area was named in Latin Nobiliacum ("place of the nobles"), which later became the Noblat Monastery , which still exists today.
Léonard-de-Noblat first built an oratory dedicated to “Notre-Dame-de-sous-les-Arbres” (Our Lady of the Trees). His body was buried in the prayer house on November 6, 559 and was still kept for veneration. Since then, Saint-Léonard has been considered the patron saint of those "who are in chains", that is, of the prisoners - but also of the "mentally ill" who were chained up into the 18th century. Legend has it that through the prayer of St. Leonhard or through intercession made to him, both before and after his death, miraculously broke the chains of numerous prisoners. After the Reformation he also became the patron saint of domestic animals, especially horses, because the chains with which he was depicted were mistakenly interpreted as cattle chains.
The former oratory soon became too small and had to give way to a larger church. The tradition of the pilgrimage to the grave of St. Leonhard already existed in 1010, which found numerous and important followers. So around 1023 a group of clergy traveled there with a bailiff named Jourdain de Laron. In the same year he became Bishop of Limoges and promoted the development of the pilgrimage. He later arranged for the above-mentioned biography to be written down and presumably also suggested the planning of a new church.
Neither the oratory nor the church following it have survived today. There is, however, a tradition according to which the clergy responsible for caring for the grave asked for a sign of the place where a new building should be built. The following night, an unusually thick layer of snow for the Limousin covered the country, except for one place where the first large church was built. This third house of worship, of which the walls of the main and transept are largely preserved, was built in the first half of the 11th century.
Today the collegiate church offers a rather confusing appearance due to the different building eras and extensions.
A distinction is made between the following construction phases:
1. From the beginning of the 11th century (new construction of the original structure)
Construction of the original structure of a large church to the veneration of St. Leonhard. The simple Romanesque floor plan has the shape of a Latin cross made up of an elongated main nave without division into yokes and a transept with protruding arms. The choir head probably consisted of a simple choir with an apse and two separate apses from the transept chapels. The windowed walls of the naves have slim cross-sections, which excludes stone vaults, apart from the choir and the chapels. The ships were covered with timber trusses and gable roofs . This original building was initially not a basilica or a collegiate church. However, it was subject to a chapter of canons (fr. Église du chapitre canonial ), which had to be housed in corresponding monastery buildings, of which no traditions are known.
2. Around 1075 (extension of the grave chapel)
On the north side of the church, in the corner between the main and transepts, a “grave chapel” in the form of a circular rotunda (central building) was added, with an inner arcade wreath, stone vaults and four semicircular chapels. Such central buildings were erected in memory of the rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. They were by no means baptisteries (baptisteries). Examples in France are the crypt of the cathedral of Dijon or the rotunda of St-Jacques de Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre .
3. End of the 11th century (installation of the domes , the crossing lantern , the vaults in the 4th and 5th yoke of the nave ).
The stone vaulting of the transept and the main nave had been chosen. The cross ship received three Pendentifkuppel vaults, the medium with a lamp of an octagonal drum . In the nave, first yokes 4 and 5 were covered with barrel vaults . Since the slender outer walls could not support vaults, the former main nave was divided into a central nave, flanked by two narrow aisles . The main loads of the vaults are now borne by the partition walls (between the naves) and the pillars supporting them . The outer walls, reinforced with flat pillars in the area, only take on minor residual loads. With the vaults, the church was given the outline of a pseudo basilica .
4. Beginning of the 12th century (arches of yokes 1 to 3 and addition of the bell tower)
As an extension of the central nave of yokes 4 and 5, three yokes with barrel vaults were created. Instead of supporting the vaults with the side aisles, it was decided to install strong wall pillars on which broad arcade arches stand up, which in this way absorb the loads of the vaults of yokes 1 to 3. The resulting wall niches probably served as chapels.
On the north outer side of the church, in the area of the third yoke, a very slender bell tower with an almost square plan was built , made of an open narthex of nine pillars, above with three square floors that merge into two octagonal ones.
5. Middle of the 12th century (renovation of the main choir)
Replacing the current apse of chancel with an apse and two apses of the transept chapels by the demolition and construction of a new apse of a zweijochigen choir with an apse, a wide ambulatory (including outpatient ) of transept to transept and chapels of seven radiating chapels.
6. Late 13th century (facade walling)
Brick lining of a new facade (western wall of the nave) with a large archive Olten portal, flanked by two arcades and covered by a large archive Olten window.
7. End of the 16th, beginning of the 17th century (increase of the choir with reinforcement of the constructions)
Raising the wall surrounding the choir room in order to accommodate larger windows meant higher loads for the pillars of the choir arcades. They weren't big enough for that. Without taking architectural aesthetics into account, the slender round columns were reinforced and an additional pillar was added. In addition, the formerly slender stilted arcade arches were partially walled up. With the increase in the walls of the choir, the vault was raised accordingly. The transverse forces of the new vault had to be diverted from the outside into the outer walls of the ambulatory using additional buttresses.
Restoration of the vaulting of yoke 1, but with a groin vault .
8. End of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century (extension of ancillary rooms)
Attachment of outer wall pillars as buttresses on the south wall of the nave. Later addition of the sacristy and other ancillary rooms in the area of bays 3 to 5 and flush with the south wall of the transept on the outside.
Stage on the Camino de Santiago
The pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, which began at the end of the 11th century , and the associated donation income, probably triggered the first renovation work, especially the vaulting of the ships. The largest expansion section towards the middle of the 12th century coincided with the great heyday of the pilgrimage to Santiago in the first half of the 12th century, in which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims moved south every year. Not only were new churches, monasteries, hospices, hostels and cemeteries built on these paths, but 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. During the elaborate expansion of the choir head, one had to be content with the restricted use of the ships for the time being.
At that time Saint-Léonard was an important stage on the Camino de Santiago to Spain and is on one of the four main routes in France, the Via Lemovicensis , from Vézelay (Burgundy) to Ostabat (before the Pyrenees crossing). The Book of Jacob expressly recommended that the pilgrims visit the grave. To protect the relics and to include the Pilgrims founded the Canons 1105 a pen , which she said Augustinian order assumed. The church became a collegiate church accordingly.
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. The canons could no longer benefit from the expansion of their collegiate church. However, they were left with the pilgrimages to the grave of St. Leonhard .
The veneration of St. Leonhard had quickly spread throughout Christendom; his grave in the collegiate church became an important pilgrimage site. Many famous people came to pray at his grave:
- Bohemond of Taranto (1106)
- Richard the Lionheart (ca.1197)
- Charles VII and his son, who later became Louis XI. (1438)
- Eleanor of Castile , wife of Francis I (1541)
- Henry II of Bourbon-Condé (1620)
- Anna of Austria thanked for the birth of Louis XIV.
- Tsarina Alexandra , wife of Nicholas II , sent a representative to visit the tomb of St. Leonhard to pray for the birth of an heir to the throne.
In 1576 the Calvinists who tried to desecrate the relics of St. Leonhard were chased out of the city by the residents.
After the Reformation, numerous monasteries settled in Saint-Léonard: around 1594 the Franciscan recollects or in 1652 the Marian Sisters. Three penitents communities were formed, the "White Penitents" , the "Penitents Feuilles Mortes" and the "Blue Penitents" .
The collegiate church has been listed as part of the Unesco World Heritage “Camino de Santiago in France” since 1998.
Building
Dimensions (taken from the floor plan):
- Total length (with choir chapel): 65.0 m
- Width transept area: 29.0 m
- Longhouse width: 12.8 m
- Length of the nave from the transept: 20.0 m
- Outside transept width: 7.7 m
- Choir width in the clear: 9.1 m
- Choir width with pedestal and wall: 22.6 m
- Choir length with wall: 16.6 m
- Clear width of handling: 4.6 m
- Outside diameter grave chapel without apses: 9.7 m
- Bell tower height: 52.0 m
Outward appearance
The best overview of the structures of the buildings and their interrelationships is obtained from the architectural model of the building exhibited in the church (see picture). When looking at the original building from eye level, it is often difficult to recognize the shape and size of the building elements that are behind, especially because parts of the nave and the choir head are covered by the later additions or the use of buttresses.
Longhouse
The nave , which, together with the walls of the transept, originates from the first construction phase of the church, can only be seen in full length on the south side, as the later sacristy extensions have remained significantly low. The monastery buildings may once have stood here.
The structure of the nave consists of a sleek, elongated cuboid of towering, flat walls made of quarry stone masonry of different colors, predominantly smaller formats, and bricked up in an irregular bond. The windows and other component edges within the masonry are framed by large-format stone . The nave is covered by a gently sloping gable roof. Even if the interior of the nave is divided into five bays, the continuous roof only extends from the facade up to and including bay four. This can easily be seen on the south wall of the nave, which only received vertical buttresses in modern times , which mark the inner yoke division. The gable roof continued over yoke 5 and the crossing at the same inclination is about 1.5 m lower than the roof over most of the nave. Like the other roofs of the church, the nave roof is covered with red hollow tiles in Roman format, also known as “monk-nun tiles”. The rainwater is collected on all eaves in partly concealed gutters and drained off in a controlled manner via rain pipes.
The west gable of the nave was not given a more representative early Gothic facade until the late 13th century, after the heyday of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The natural stone masonry consists of large-format, smooth, light gray to slightly beige-colored ashlar blocks that are walled up in regular layers. The portal and window walls are made of the same material. The new gable does not take over the height and inclination of the old nave gable, whose verges show the inclination of the gable roof. Its verges are inclined at 45 degrees. Their slightly protruding cover plates bend a short piece horizontally at the lower ends. The gable ridge clearly towers above the old roof ridge , while the lower parts of the old gable protrude up to about a meter behind the new one.
The facade is divided into two storeys of roughly the same height on average by a horizontal cornice. The lower floor is dominated by the central five-step archivolt portal , the walls of which are roughly as wide as the portal opening itself. Very slim columns are set in the steps and are each accompanied by three quarter bars. The same arrangement of the bar profiles is continued above the capitals in the slightly pointed arches. The carved capitals as well as the profiled bases each form a wreath that continues as a frieze on the side of the portal walls almost to the edge of the gable. On each frieze there is a blind arcade made of three-tier archivolts with significantly more pointed arches than on the portal. The inner arch shows a tracery from half a quatrefoil . All outer arches, including that of the portal, are framed by cantilever profiles. The apex of the portal's cantilever profile extends just below the cantilevered cornice. At about the same height, strong carved corbels are set in, which indicate that there was an open vestibule ( narthex ) in front of the entire width of the facade , made of a wooden construction whose monopitch roof ridge was supported on the corbels.
On the upper floor there is a slender window directly in the center of the cantilevered cornice, which is covered by a slightly pointed arch. There are two levels of vestments, which are equipped like the portal, also with capitals. On the inside there is a third step, made up of smooth walls sloping inwards and without capitals.
The south wall of the nave has between the bays 1 to 5 massive wall pillars, rectangular and square in plan, with different dimensions, which were bricked up as buttresses in the 19th century. Obviously, cracks had formed in the structures at that time, which made it necessary to reinforce the wall. The pillars are uniformly high and reach roughly three quarters of the wall height. The upper section is slightly tapered compared to the lower section and is steeply sloping outwards at the top. After the buttresses were built, the sacristy and some side rooms were added in front of yokes 3 to 5, the southern outer wall of which is flush with the southern wall of the transept arm and has five irregularly spaced pairs of rectangular windows.The ridge of its gable roof extends approximately half the wall height of the nave.
The south wall has windows in each yoke. In yokes 2 and 4 there is a larger, slender, arched window, the parapet of which is just under half the height of the wall. In yoke 2, a small, round-arched window is also left off-center at a height of two to three meters. In yoke 3 there is a round arched window, about as wide as the one in yoke 2 and 4, but only about two meters high. Its altitude is in the area of the bevels of the buttresses. A horizontal cornice is arranged just below its parapet and two corbels just below it. Both point to a former connection to an extension with a pent roof. A window of a similar size is let into yoke 5, but below half the wall height. In yoke 1, two niches with arched covers are cut out about halfway up the wall. They were probably two smaller, slim windows of the same size. They were walled up on the inside. The former front window has been bricked up to two thirds in the entire wall thickness. Further down there is another small window that corresponds in size and position to that in yoke 2. At the very top, under the eaves, there are two rectangular openings that are intended to ventilate the roof space.
The north wall is largely no longer visible. The bell tower rises in yoke three. In yokes four and five, the grave chapel obstructs the north wall, except for narrow areas below the eaves. The wall section of yokes 1 and 2 can be viewed in full. There, too, the wall pillar was reinforced as on the south side. There is a window in each of the two bays, as on the opposite side in bays 2 and 4. There are also ventilation openings under the eaves as on the south side.
Transept with crossing
The transept is also only slightly visible from the outside due to later additions and modifications. Its walls are made of the same masonry as that of the nave. The crossing lies under the saddle roof of yoke 5 of the nave described in the nave.
The southern arm of the transept is covered with an asymmetrical gable roof with a very slight incline, the ridge of which runs over the eastern transept wall and the eaves facing west over the western transept wall. The smaller roof area to the east essentially covers the spiral staircase that leads up to the roof spaces above the vaults. On the south wall of the south arm of the transept there is a small, arched window about in the middle, barely two meters above the outer level, and vertical, partly stepped offsets of the wall thickness on the wall surface.
The north arm of the transept is covered by a gently sloping hipped roof that pushes onto the middle gable roof. Its north-facing wall has a large blind arcade , not quite the width of the wall and with a top that is about a meter below the eaves. The masonry quarry stone arch is slightly pointed. A large round-arched window is cut out just below the arch, with the soffit edges set back. The arcade niche is only slightly set back. The masonry bond of the niche indicates that it was subsequently built under the arch. The arcade niche could perhaps have been a wall passage that opened up to a former extension to the transept, such as an additional chapel. The assumption is confirmed by the stone material and the flat surface of the strange wall section adjoining the eastern corner, which today belongs to the northern radial chapel. It consists of the same quarry stone masonry as that of the transept walls and not of the smooth stone as that of the younger choir head. It also does not have the rounding, like the other wall sections of the radial chapels. This wall section could perhaps have belonged to the presumed former extension, for example to a polygonal apse.
The octagonal crossing lantern stands in the middle of the gable roof of the crossing on a square base stepped sideways. It was built towards the end of the 11th century and was then the highest part of the church. Two sides of the octagon were later covered by the west wall of the chancel, which rose above the lantern, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. The vertical edges of the lantern are marked with three-quarter round columns. On the sides of the octagon there are slender, arched windows that stand up on the aforementioned plinth. Their reveal edges are simply stepped back. The lantern is covered by an octagonal pyramid roof, the eaves of which protrude with their rafters over the line of the columns.
Choir head
Seen from the east, the extensive choir head covers all parts of the nave and transept. It has a threefold gradation, from the widespread wreath of seven radial chapels, from the unusually wide ambulatory and from the soaring choir room.
The chapel apses emerge with a semicircular floor plan from the large rounding of the outer wall. The apses are covered by gently sloping half- conical roofs , the roofs of which abut just below the eaves. The eaves consist of cornice panels with a rectangular cross-section, on which the rafters rest and protrude slightly. The rounding of the apse is divided into three wall sections by two semicircular columns. Rectangular pillars stand at the connections between the apse walls and the wall. The protruding eaves cornice rests on the pillars and pillars and is additionally supported by partially sculpted corbels. The apse walls and pillars are divided twice horizontally with profiled cantilever cornices, at a height of just under 1.50 meters and at the height of the window capitals. The lower plinth area protrudes slightly from the walls and pillars. The bases under the pillars have rectangular cross-sections. The upper column sections are significantly slimmer than those below. Both column sections have profiled fighters and bases . A slender arched window is cut out in each of the wall sections. The window in the center of the chapels is slightly larger than the two outer ones. The middle window in the central chapel is significantly larger than any other. The reveal edges of the windows are simply stepped back on all sides. Slender columns with carved capitals are inserted into the recesses, which continue above them as round bars in the arch. The setbacks are about twice as wide as the pillars, and considerably wider in the parapet area. The reveal edges of the arches are made of wedge stones. The outer wedge arch of the large window in the central chapel is framed by a simple scroll frieze .
The wall of the gallery can only be seen in small sections between the chapels and above the chapel roofs. In the wall sections between the chapels, a slender, arched window is cut out, slightly lower than the chapel windows, but with the same parapet height and with simple reveal edges. Above each there is a small arched window, roughly at the eaves level of the chapels. The slightly inclined monopitch roof above the ambulatory has a span of a good five meters between the outer wall of the choir and the outer ambulatory wall. The eaves here simply consist of the butt-ended wall crown on which the rafters rest and protrude a little.
The choir only protruded so high from the pent roof ridge of the ambulatory at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. The outer walls are based on a plan of a rectangle and a semicircular apse, which are covered by a gently sloping gable roof that merges into a half-conical roof. The western gable wall stands directly next to the crossing lantern and is supported by the pendentive dome in the crossing. The subdivisions of the two choir bays can be seen on the outer pillars. The eaves here, similar to the eaves of the chapels, consist of projecting cornice panels that are supported by the wall pillars and also by a row of partially sculpted corbels. The rafters protrude far above the cantilevered cornice. In the rounded apse wall, three slender, arched windows are recessed with simple reveal edges. In the second choir bay there are still two windows. A strong cantilevered cornice is located just above the pent roof ridge of the gallery.
Since the outer walls and their wall pillars were insufficient to absorb the horizontal shear forces of the new vaults above the window apex, seven outer buttresses were installed here , each as an extension of one of the two chapel walls adjoining the outer wall . Approximately in the middle between the monopitch roof ridge and the choir eaves, the upper ends of the buttresses attack the choir wall. Their upper sides run in a straight line, roughly parallel to the pitch of the monopitch roof, sloping downward, their lower sides extend downwards, slightly rounded. The lower ends of the buttresses are supported on disc-shaped buttresses and continue to divert the loads vertically downwards into the masonry of the chapel and gallery walls. At the level of the upper ends of the buttresses, the walls are reinforced piece by piece with horizontal cornices.
Above the first yoke of the southern ambulatory, the monopitch roof has been raised about a whole story and surrounded by outer walls. The significance of this subsequently created space is not known.
Gallery chapel details
Radial chapels, capital on the window
Chapel eaves, 2 corbels, heads
Chapel eaves, 2 corbels
Chapel eaves, 3 corbels
Chapel eaves, corbel, grimace
Chapel eaves, corbel, face
Chapel eaves, corbels, while eating
Chapel eaves, corbel, grimace
Chapel eaves, corbel
Chapel eaves, corbel
Burial chapel
The chapel with four chapel apses, which is now used as a baptistery, originally had by no means the same meaning. It was completed around 1075 in the angle between the north wall of the nave and the north arm of the transept. At the time, pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulcher were common in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher, rebuilt in 1055 , but there were no crusades yet . The original structure of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, consecrated in 335, consisting of a basilica and a rotunda, was completely destroyed in 1009. The builders of the Holy Sepulcher Chapel of Saint-Léonard probably knew the appearance of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher from tradition, or, what is more obvious, from their own experience of the constructions of the former Saint-Bénigne Abbey Church of Dijon , completed in 1031 , which largely approximated the model of the early church. The Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher could well be described as a reduced image of the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It can also be combined with a church on the plan of a Latin cross. The church was not a basilica then. In addition to an access portal from the outside, this chapel also has an inner connecting door to the north arm of the transept. After the actual service in the church, the believers and visitors to the church at that time were able to go to the rotunda, built on the model of the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher, to worship the Holy Sepulcher. Perhaps there was also a miniature aedicule in the center , similar to the one that stood in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
From the outside, the recently intensively restored rotunda can only be seen from the northwest to the southwest. The west side is partially covered by the pillars of the bell tower. Before it was built, around three quarters of the circumference was visible. The building has a circular floor plan with an outside diameter of almost ten meters, from which four semicircular chapel apses protrude. The width of the apses corresponds roughly to the width of the wall sections between the chapels. The axes of the apses coincide with the directions of the axes of the ships.
The height of the eaves is between eight and nine meters. It is formed from a strong cantilever cornice with a broadly beveled visible edge, which rests on closely placed corbels, in a somewhat simplified form of the planed chipboard . Probably the work of the most recent restoration. The spaces between the corbels are filled with small-format, smooth stone, flush with the wall. The rafter heads of the roof truss protrude above the cornice. The rotunda is covered by a gently sloping conical roof, the hollow tile roofing of which is divided radially into eight segments.
The masonry of the rotunda and the chapels consists of large-format, smooth, light beige-colored blocks of the same size in regular layers up to the level of the chapel eaves. The surfaces of the stones are curved according to the radii of the components. The wall of the rotunda consists in the upper, almost one meter high strip of small-format, light-gray stone blocks, each of the same size, which is covered on the top by a layer of the light brickwork blocks on which the corbels rest. The tops of the chapels are covered by conical roofs made of smooth stone, which consist of two superimposed layers. In the spaces between the chapels, slender, arched windows are recessed with sleek reveal edges. The arches of the windows are level with the chapel eaves.
In the wall section pointing to the southwest, the wall is thickened with an additional layer of wall on the outside approximately up to the level of the change in material of the masonry and beveled at two different heights on the top. A round arched blind arcade is embedded in it, which encloses the rectangular single-winged portal of the chapel.
Bell tower
The late Romanesque 52-meter-high bell tower is a creation of the early 12th century and is rated in German-language art travel guides as “perhaps the most elegant of its style in the Limousin”. It stands with its almost square floor plan on the north wall in the third yoke of the nave and touches the western chapel apse of the burial chapel on its east side. It opens on all sides on all floors with generous wall passages, with almost imperceptibly pointed round arches, with the exception of the south on the two lower floors, where the nave adjoins. The building edges of the lower three storeys are broken by strong setbacks.
The lower floor forms an open narthex (portal porch), through which one can access both the church and the grave chapel protected from the weather. It is about the same height as the next floor, but looks lower due to the significantly larger arcade openings. The ground floor is closed off on the top by a strong, all-round cantilever cornice, which is sloped outwards on the top. Above this, the walls of the next floor step back a little. The almost round-arched pairs of arcades on three sides of the tower show considerable setbacks of the belt arches in the arch area, which are carried by semicircular old ministries, which are equipped with vegetable and figurative carved capitals and profiled fighters. The transoms also completely enclose the outer pillar parts as a cantilever profile. In the middle of the eight pillars that form the square of the narthex, there is a ninth pillar, which is connected to the other pillars with four belt arches and itself supports four semicircular services with capitals and warriors. The four ceiling fields are covered with groin vaults. A central pillar can also be found on the next two floors.
The second floor, like the first, is closed off by a cantilever cornice. The significantly smaller pairs of arcades have double setbacks of the reveal edges on the sides and in the arches. Slender columns are set in the inner setbacks, which are continued in the same dimension in the arches as round bars. They are each equipped with capitals and fighters, the profiles of which are led around the outer pillars. On the south side, a piece of gable roof is attached, which is pushed across the gable roof of the nave.
The third floor is a good deal higher than the previous two. It starts with a circumferential “parapet”, which is covered with a cantilevered cornice, which is stepped on the top several times and thus looks very strong. Above this, the walls jump back a little more than on the lower floors. The “parapet” is adorned on each side with two dwarf galleries, each with four blind arcades made of round arches with angular wedge-shaped stones, slender columns with capitals and fighters. On each side of the parapet there are again pairs of arcades of the same size as on the floor below. The only difference is that instead of the outer angular wall pillars, there are semicircular services here, equipped with carved capitals and profiled fighters. This storey is closed with a cantilever cornice, with a significantly higher stepping on the top and a larger setback of the following outer walls.
The fourth floor finds the transition from the square to the octagonal floor plan. It is about the same height as the previous one and still has a square floor plan in the lower section, but the upper, slightly higher, is octagonal. The upper section is separated from the lower section by a cantilevered cornice and a further setback. On each side of the lower section there is a slender opening with simple soffit edges, which are bordered on the sides by rectangular pillars, their arches are at the level of the cantilevered cornice. Pointed gable triangles rise above the arches, the verges of which are covered by flat, slightly protruding slabs. The gable ridges are level with the cantilever cornice that closes the storey. Four edges of the octagon point to the four edges of the bottom square. They are reinforced by buttresses placed diagonally. A small round-arched twin window is “squeezed in” between the gable corridors and the buttresses, which are separated by a slender column with a capital and a spur.
The upper octagonal section is followed by a last floor with roughly the same octagonal floor plan and two slight setbacks. It consists of a higher section, about as high as the previous one, and a narrow final wreath. The octagonal sides of the higher section are almost completely filled with a large arcade with a pointed arch and simple soffit edges. The recessed smooth arched field covers a twin window, which is separated in the middle by a slender column with a carved capital and a profiled fighter. The final wreath is adorned on each side with two twin blind arcades, without central pillar support.
The last floor is covered by a steeply pointed spire in the form of an octagonal pyramid with smooth surfaces. The steepness of the helmet and the triangular gable fields on the penultimate floor are already reminiscent of the Gothic style that was emerging at the time. The top of the helmet is crowned by a short column with two knobs, above it a cross with a metal weathercock.
Gallery narthex capitals
Face in thicket
Birds and face
Bearded face
Tangled artists
Fighters with shields
Four-legged friends
Vegetable structures
Vegetable structures
2 people carry a load
Convoluted
Interior
All vaults, barrels, such as domes and the old quarry stone walls of the nave and transept are smoothly plastered and tinted in the natural stone color. All pillars, columns, arches, partitions and the pendentives are bricked out of large-format, light-colored ashlar blocks and wedge stones.
Longhouse
The nave is divided into five bays, some of different widths, and in bays 4 and 5 shows the elevation of a pseudo-basilica , without windowed upper cladding, from the central nave and very narrow side aisles, the latter about at the height of the vaults of the central nave. This initially somewhat confusing interior division is due to the fact that the nave initially consisted of a single nave, without stone vaults. The slender outer walls would not have allowed stone vaults in the span without additional reinforcements.
In the next construction phase, which started with the vaults, the front part of the nave was divided into two bays - the later bays 4 and 5 - and three naves. The spans of the stone vaults could be reduced significantly. The narrow aisles helped to transfer the horizontal thrust of the middle barrel to the partition walls, their pillars and the outer walls reinforced around the pillars.
The slightly sharpened barrel vaults of the ships are divided or limited in the transverse direction among each other and towards the yoke 3 by equally sharpened belt arches with right-angled cross-section. Towards the crossing, this is done by the western crossing arcade. The vault approaches are marked by strong, profiled cantilever cornices. The strong partition walls rest on slightly pointed arcades, which in turn stand on pillars. The pillars between yoke 5 and crossing have a cross-shaped floor plan, the cross arms facing the side aisles are, however, semicircular old services, as are the services on the outer walls opposite. The pillars between yokes 4 and 5 are round pillars, opposite to which are rectangular wall pillars on the outer walls, which are flanked by two young services. The pillars between yokes 3 and 4 again have a cruciform floor plan, but the arms to the aisles are missing. The pillars opposite on the outer walls are rectangular. The pillars and services have carved capitals covered by profiled fighters. The angular pillars are only completed by the same transom profiles at the same height. Just above the capitals in the side aisles, slightly pointed, round buttress arches are arranged. The capitals of the young services are arranged a little higher than those on the pillars.
In the later vaulting of yokes 1 to 3, the builders planned and executed the construction differently. Here, too, the span of the middle barrel was considerably reduced compared to the nave width, but not quite as far. Instead of the side aisles and partition walls, strong wall pillars were erected inside in front of the outer walls, which are covered with equally wide arcade arches that support walls of equal width that reach under the vaults. The barrels, which are initially slightly sharpened into three yokes, are subdivided by belt arches with a rectangular cross section and separated from the west wall. The obviously damaged or collapsed vault in yoke 1 was renewed as a groin vault at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century, including its supporting substructure.
The arrangement of the windows corresponds to the information in the section “Appearance”. However, they appear much larger here, as the garments are widened on all sides.
Gallery longhouse
North face yokes 2 u. 3
Longhouse, north aisle, from yoke 4 to the front
Nave, upper south side aisle, yokes 4 u. 5
Nave, capital south of the partition
Transept with crossing
Simultaneously with the vaulting of the front part of the nave, the entire transept has also been vaulted, but with much more complex constructions. Here, too, the slender outer walls did not seem to be sufficient for the builders to cope with stone vaults. The decision was made for the vaulting with two-part pendentive domes , which transfer their loads very precisely to the corner points of the rooms and manage there without side buttresses.
In the arms of the transept there are square pendentive domes, which are delimited towards the crossing by very wide arcades with pointed arches that rest on rectangular pillars. On the other three sides, there are significantly narrower but equally high pointed arcade arches on the two aforementioned pillars and two additional pillars. The eastern arcades of the transept arms open towards the ambulatory and are narrowed on the outside by the wall ends of the first radial chapels. In the southeast corner of the southern arm of the transept there is access to a spiral staircase that leads to the attic spaces above the vaults.
The crossing outline is not quite square, but widens slightly to the east. The crossing is surrounded by four arcades with pointed round arches. The arches facing the choir and central nave are significantly higher than those in the transverse direction. That is why there are additional blind arches above the south and north facing arcades, above which the pendentives of the crossing dome rise. In this pendentive dome, an octagonal drum is inserted between the lower and upper part of the dome , which protrudes from the gable roof of the crossing as a lantern . On each of the inner sides of the drum, a round arched blind arcade is faded in, the round pillars of which stand in the corners of the drum and are closed off by carved capitals and profiled fighters. In the niches of the blind arcades, slender, arched windows are recessed with walls that expand inward. A circular opening is cut out in the apex of the dome, which is framed by wedge stones and closed by a wooden lid. The two east-facing windows are covered by the western wall of the chancel.
Between the transept arms and the crossing, there are similar vaults at the same height as an extension of the side aisle vaults of the nave, but they taper slightly to the east. Immediately next to the broad arcades of the transept arms, there are also narrower arcades that correspond to those of the crossing arcades opposite. The edges of the aforementioned arcade arches pointing towards the narrow space are broken by setbacks.
Gallery transept with crossing
Crossing lantern, laterally from below
North. Transept arm, from crossing
Between the south arm of the transept and crossing
Vegetable carved capital
Choir head
The choir head is divided into the central choir with apse, the ambulatory or the ambulatory and the chapel wreath, from the apses of the seven radial chapels. The choir was increased considerably at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. The resulting reinforcement of the pillars and arches in the area of the choir apse have significantly detrimentally changed the original harmony of the arcade gallery surrounding it.
The choir area is based on the floor plan of two rectangular bays, to which the semicircular choir apse adjoins. The two bays are vaulted by slightly pointed barrels, which are divided by rectangular belt arches between each other and towards the apse. The choir apse is vaulted by the dome of half a dome. That was probably the case even before the choir was raised. The originally heavily stilted, closely placed arcade arches all stood on a total of eight columns with carved capitals and profiled fighters. With the increase in space, four of the pillars were reinforced by walling that was square in plan, including some of the capitals. The other four columns with their capitals and fighters have been preserved. The edges of all stilted arcades have also been preserved. A square pillar was wedged between the two central pillars and brought up to under the arch. The “new” square pillars have transom profiles approximately at the level of the capitals. Starting from them, sections of round arches were subsequently inserted between the arch stilts, which should span up to the next square pillar. With the exception of the northern one, the pillars of the first choir bay have been completely preserved from the time the choir was built. In the upper area of the choir apse, three slender windows, and two more arched windows in the second yoke, have inwardly widened reveals with simple edges.
The brightly lit ambulatory has an unusually large clear width of around 4.60 meters. Its first two bays on the north and south side of the gallery are covered by groin vaults, which are framed on four sides by pointed arcade arches, which stand on old services with carved capitals and profiled fighters. The rest of the ambulatory is covered by a circumferential barrel vault, which is constricted on both sides by lancet vaults , the depths of which depend on the width of the arcade arches of the openings on both sides. The spaces between the stitching caps stand on the one hand on the original pillars of the choir room, on the other hand on the outer wall on old services, with carved capitals and profiled fighters. In the walls of the spaces between the chapels, there is a large, and a small, arched window above it, with walls widened inwards. The reveal edges of the large windows are set back, in which there are slender columns with capitals and fighters, as in the case of the services, on which window arches made of wedge stones rest.
The radial chapels with a semicircular floor plan are vaulted by semi-dome-shaped domes, the vaulting approaches of which are marked with profiled cantilever cornices. The chapel apses each have three blind arcades on the inside over a parapet, with slightly pointed arches on slender columns with carved capitals and profiled fighters. In the arcade niches, slender, arched window openings have been cut out, with walls that expand inward and particularly steep parapets. Their side soffit edges are broken back with setbacks in which there are slender columns, with capitals and spars, as in the blind arcades.
Gallery choir head
Choir apse from crossing
southern ambulatory
Courtyard vault
Radial chapel
Choir apse, capital walled up
Choir apse, capital
Choir apse, capital
Choir apse, capital
Burial chapel
The grave chapel stands on a circular floor plan with a diameter of approximately 7.7 meters, with an inner arcade wreath made up of eight columns, which are connected to one another with angular arches and which are also rounded on the sides. The column bases are simply profiled. The arches stand on simply carved capitals with profiled fighters. The arcade wreath is vaulted by a dome. The area between the outer wall and the arcade wreath is covered with a circumferential barrel vault, which is divided radially on each column by a belt arch with a rectangular cross-section. The belt arches stand on the column capitals and on the outer walls on three-quarter round services with similar capitals and fighters. In every second space between the eight services, a total of four semicircular chapel apses are inserted, which are vaulted by semicircular domes. In the other four spaces, three arched windows and a rectangular door are left open. A narrow door is left open in the east-facing apse, a connection to the north arm of the transept. The walls, pillars, belt arches and services consist of large-format cuboids made of smooth, light-colored stone. The vaults and arcades are smoothly plastered and lightly tinted. The floor consists of large-format stone slabs. Today there is a stone baptismal font in the center of the chapel.
Gallery grave chapel
Sepulchral chapel, interior with baptismal font
Sepulchral chapel, gallery, window and apse
Sepulcher chapel, dome on arcade wreath
Sepulcher chapel, gallery and arcade wreath
Sepulcher chapel, arcade wreath
Sepulchral chapel, gallery vault
Sepulchral chapel, column bases
Sepulchral chapel, holy water font
inventory
On the south wall of the south arm of the transept, the grave of St. Leonhard is housed in a round arched wall niche in the form of a sarcophagus . The chains with which he is always represented are attached to the back wall. According to tradition, women who want to get married and have children should touch the temple. The handcuffs are also depicted on the coat of arms of the city of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat.
The choir stalls were carved from oak in 1480. The undersides of the folding seats and the knobs of the armrests are individually sculpted with representations that testify to the artisan's humor.
Gallery choir stalls
Detail of choir stalls, nun
Detail choir stalls, animal
Detail of choir stalls, grimace
Detail choir stalls, monk
Detail of choir stalls, angels with coats of arms
Detail of the choir stalls while eating
Detail choir stalls, lion
Detail choir stalls, musicians
The main altar in the choir apse was made of gilded wood in the 18th century.
Various sculptures have been placed in the niches of the nave and in the radial chapels, such as two Pietas, the figure of Saint Roch , two Madonnas with a child in their arms and others.
Gallery sculptures
Madonna and Child
Madonna and Child, detail
Madonna and Child (2)
Woman with sword
Saint Roch
On the north side of the nave, next to the portal, there is a cross with a weathercock, both made of metal, which was probably erected on the spire. A bell mallet is also shown.
literature
- Erich Grau, Margit Kilian: The Limousin . Dumont art travel guide. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7701-2732-3
- Information sheet, available in the church: SAINT LÈONARD (without indication of author)
- Floor plans of the individual construction phases hanging out in the church (without details of the author)
Web links
- http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienL/Leonhard_von_Noblat.html
- WHC Nomination Documentation (PDF, 89 MB!), Application documents for the nomination as World Heritage, here: Section "Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, Eglise Saint-Léonard"
Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur church in Asquins | Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Vézelay | Sainte-Croix-Notre-Dame | Saint-Etienne cathedral of Bourges | Saint-Etienne Collegiate Church in Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre | Church of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat | Périgueux Cathedral | Cadouin Abbey | Church of Saint-Avit-Sénieur | Former Saint-Jean-Baptiste Cathedral of Bazas | Saint-Sever Abbey . Champagne: Notre-Dame Basilica in L'Épine | Notre-Dame-en-Vaux | Via Turonensis | Via Podiensis | Via Tolosana . Other buildings: Notre-Dame-du-Port (Clermont-Ferrand) | Mont Saint-Michel .
Coordinates: 45 ° 50 ′ 13.7 " N , 1 ° 29 ′ 22.7" E