Église

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

Like many buildings of this period, the church of Brévands owes its approximate dating only to architectural analysis and comparison of dated buildings. The church adopts a Latin cross plan with a projecting transept surmounted by a square tower with a pitched roof. The choir has two bays and ends in a flat chevet. A polygonal sacristy was added late against the choir. The church comprises numerous elements of architecture from the late Romanesque period. The base of the outer south wall of the nave comprises herringbone masonry. Inside, the crossing of the transept rests on four composite piers, receiving the ribs formed of a central twisted moulding framed by two finer twisted mouldings. The arcades are round arch, with double roll-moulding. Each arm of the transept receives a rib vault resting on a half-column terminated by a corbel. The same applies to the three bays of the nave, but this is certainly a copy from the end of the 19th century of the Romanesque arrangement. The date 1893 appears on the lintel of the south side door of the nave which clearly shows restoration work. The elegant capitals of the piers of the transept crossing display classical Romanesque iconography: confronted birds, grotesques integrated into scrollwork etc. The acanthus leaves already show nascent hook crockets which might indicate a late dating within the 12th century. However, this analysis deserves to be very cautious, as the restorers of the end of the 19th century were manifestly involved in the sculpture. A crypt, discovered during military operations in 1944, is found beneath the current choir. This discovery prompted at the time the classification procedure. Mural paintings, dating back to the 14th century, decorate its walls: a sedes sapiente and a crucifix Christ. It should be noted the existence of other mural paintings in the south side chapel of the transept. In 1687, a generous donor in the person of Antoine IV de la Luzerne, marquis de Brévands, had the sanctuary completely refurbished. His arms, defaced at the Revolution, appear at the vault key, the barrel vault of which is underlined by stone harping.