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Origin and history

The collegiate Saint-Hippolyte de Poligny, located in the Jura, was built between 1414 and 1450 thanks to the donations of Jean Chousat, a local bourgeois and member of the Grand Council of Burgundy, as well as to the enrichment by Jean Chevrot, bishop of Tournai and president of the council of Philippe le Bon. Its rapid construction, in less than half a century, gives it a rare architectural unit for a flamboyant Gothic building. From its origin, it has combined the functions of collegiate and parish church, reflecting the growing importance of Poligny during the separation of the county and duchy of Burgundy.

The site, documented by precise archives, started in 1414 and finished around 1440, with a dedication in 1437. The bell tower, completed around 1450, initially had a stone arrow destroyed in the 17th century and replaced by a dome. The porch, added in the seventeenth century, houses a 15th century polychrome Virgin. The interior, marked by an elegant sobriety, includes a nave to collateral, a polygonal apse choir, and side chapels housing an exceptional collection of statues of the Burgundy school of the 15th century.

Among the treasures of the college are the four statues of the abside and the Calvary dominating the entrance of the choir. Jean Chevrot commanded Rogier van der Weyden about 1445 the Retable of the Seven Sacraments for his funeral chapel, today preserved at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp. The building, classified as a Historic Monument in 1911, also houses a Cavaillé-Coll organ and enjoyed a major restoration between 1974 and 1988.

The square tower of the bell tower, off the left of the facade, illustrates the architectural peculiarities of the flamboyant Gothic. The building symbolizes both local piety and the political influence of Burgundy in the 15th century, while its 17th century additions testify to its stylistic evolution. The collegiate church remains a major testimony of Burgundy patronage and franc-comtois religious art.

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