église Saint-Étienne

English translation

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History

The present building illustrates four campaigns of construction: a nave bordered by simple aisles and a projecting transept, erected around 1130-1150; the western facade and its portal, built in the early 13th century; the canons' choir, flanked by simple aisles opening onto chapels and terminated by an ambulatory and a three-sided apse, rebuilt in the first half of the 16th century on the site of a 12th-century choir with a flat chevet; finally, the imposing detached bell tower, replacing the former lantern tower at the crossing, and repositioned at the northern flank of the western facade at the end of the 16th century. As is often the case, due to financial hardship, it is the parts of the monument in the charge of the church fabric that remain the oldest elements of the building. Like many other churches, Saint-Etienne combines and juxtaposes, both inside and outside the nave, Romanesque references and Gothic innovations. Romanesque references in the three-part elevation of the nave with triforium with geminated openings opening beneath the roof space, of Anglo-Norman inspiration, or in the sculptured vocabulary. On the other hand, the mark of Gothic master builders impresses itself strongly in the treatment of the roof structure established, for its oldest parts, a few years after the completion of the envelope of the nave and transept. Thus the south aisle of the nave presents among the oldest examples of rib vaults in the Oise.