Eglise Saint-Vallier

The Romanesque church of Saint-Vallier, located in the center of the village, is one of a group of churches in the Champagne region whose transept and choir, paid for by the decimators, were rebuilt in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, while the naves, paid for by the parishioners, were mostly preserved for lack of funds. The cross-shaped layout comprises a short, low nave, a double transept and a three-sided apse with a flat chevet. Double transepts and flat chevets, a feature of 16th-century religious architecture in the Trojan region, often represent the beginning of a nave reconstruction that was not continued, as is the case here. The south side of the double transept dates from the 16th century. In the 19th century, the north side of the transept was built or rebuilt in 16th-century style, with the apse restored and the nave vaults rebuilt in wood and plaster. The apse, which is the same height as the transept, is supported by two large corner buttresses. Each side is pierced by a semicircular Renaissance window from the second half of the century. The north window is now blocked. The side facades of the double transept, separated by a buttress, are typical of most Aube churches with a double transept: one gable and one independent roof per bay. The cornice with simply fluted modillions running beneath the transept roof is the only exterior decoration on this 16th-century building. This feature is common in churches in the region, such as Pouan, Polisot and Gélannes. The south arm of the transept is lit from the south and east by large pointed-arch windows with flamboyant rem plage. The difference in the style of the transept and choir window surrounds suggests that the transept predates the choir by a few years, whose window surrounds are clearly Renaissance. The transept is topped by a small square bell tower with a pyramid-shaped top. The eaves walls of the Romanesque nave are crowned with a cornice featuring sculpted modillions, some of which depict caricatured heads that have probably been reused. The building is covered by a 19th-century ribbed vault, which falls by penetration onto the engaged piers; the restorer has harmonized the modern mouldings with those of the transepts? piers. These six short, squat, cylindrical-core piers rest on bases with rounded moldings separated by grooves, cavets and scoties. The vaults penetrate them directly, without the intermediary of capitals. The choir is vaulted with a complex network of star-shaped ogives and tiercerons resting on culottes. The keystones are devoid of sculpture. In the 19th century, this ensemble was embellished with a painted decoration of cherubs and inscriptions surrounded by laurel wreaths. Fragments of Renaissance stained glass windows, classified as Historic Monuments in 1913, have been re-installed in the bays of the building. They are the remains of the late 15th ? early 16th c. stained glass windows destroyed by a hurricane in 1865. These included a stained glass window depicting Saint Nicolas, donated in 1625 by the priest Nicolas Breiard, and four lancets depicting Christ, the Education of the Virgin and Saint Marguerite. Fragments of the latter were placed in the axis bay in 1939. The sacristy bay is decorated with a 15th-century Saint Vallier cephalophore placed under an architectural canopy between two borders of bouquets bearing the monograms of Christ and the Virgin.

DATAtourisme France