Eglise Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens de Brienne-la-Vieille

The Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens church in Brienne-la-Vieille stands on a site already occupied in Gallo-Roman times, and boasts one of the oldest elevations in the département. In fact, its simple nave features four small, slightly splayed windows open at the top of the walls, combining brick and stone in their construction, which may date from the 9th-10th centuries; the nave has a fine volume for its time.

Five wider, higher windows were opened in the 17th or 18th centuries. The nave is wainscoted. Exposed structural elements (crossbeams and puncheons) show 16th-century arrangements.

The 12th-century west portal comes from Basse-Fontaine Abbey, secularized in 1773. On a transept crossing, which may also date from the 9th-10th centuries, a flamboyant-style architecture and choir (circa 1520) has been reassembled. This new architecture was taken up again at the very beginning of the 17th century (consecration in 1615), during which campaign the two transept arms were re-established.

The old stained glass windows were installed in two campaigns. The first, dating from the second quarter of the 16th century, predates the construction of the new apse; the others are contemporary with the alterations to the choir and transept completed in the early 17th century.

Today, this ensemble is incomplete, having suffered numerous losses and modifications over the years. The oldest stained glass windows feature a Crucifixion and saints painted in colored glass, grisaille and silver yellow (Saint Rémi in full-length, Saint Claude and Saint Roch in rondels). The central bay, dated 1536, shows two donors at prayer, Jehan Huet and his wife Guyotte Verdin, introduced by the Virgin of Seven Sorrows and Saint John the Baptist.

The early 17th-century stained glass windows, in grisaille and silver yellow, feature figures of the apostles and Christ of the Resurrection. The glass decoration was completed in modern times, notably in the south arm of the transept, where an 1876 stained-glass window dedicated to St. John the Baptist by E. Virot of Troyes, France, can be seen. Virot, Troyes, and a decorative glass panel (borders) from 1968.

The old stained glass windows were restored before the Second World War, then removed in 1939-1940. Some of them were restored again after removal in 1951-54 and around 1960 by J. Laurent and then J.-J. Gruber. The building and stained-glass windows were listed as historic monuments on July 30, 1907.

DATAtourisme France