Église Saint-Martin

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

This church is the oldest building in the city. In replacement of a Romanesque church, a Gothic building with three naves was built in the 15th century, of the hall church type. It was subsequently given a facade tower, left unfinished in 1571. In the 19th century, the expansion of the city due to the textile industry, made necessary the enlargement of the building. The works, entrusted to the architect Charles Leroy, introducer of the neo-Gothic style in the department, began in 1848 and ended around 1859. The old church disappeared then almost entirely under the neo-Gothic work of the flamboyant type. The lateral walls were broken down for the construction of two additional naves, and the chevet remade. From the original building only the facade tower and a few columns of the nave are preserved. The site work undertaken from 1968 to 1978, permitted the interior restoration of the building as well as its rearrangement, which was accompanied by the removal of neo-Gothic decoration. The building of rectangular plan is composed of a vestibule, a nave furnished with double aisles and a staggered chevet. The facade tower is surrounded by two portals with neo-Gothic decoration. The lateral facades are crowned with an open-work parapet decorated with pinnacles and open by monumental portals with neo-Gothic decoration. The choir windows are the work of Lusson and those of the lateral chapels of Claudius Lavergne.