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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church Saint-Aignan de Gevrey-Chambertin, located in the old wine village, is a building mainly built at the end of the 13th century, on the bases of an older structure. It combines Romanesque elements, such as its archvolt Western portal, and marked Gothic features: dogive crosses, verticality of walls, and light vaults. Its basilical plane consists of a four-span nave, a choir extended by wooden stalls, an asymmetrical transept (norther column only), and a steep tower shaped bell tower. Successive restorations in the 19th and 20th centuries preserved its integrity, despite minor additions in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The parish, originally attached to the Diocese of Langres, passed under the authority of Dijon in 1731 after its creation. Spared during the Revolution, the church preserves traces of its liturgical and funeral past: tombstones of the 17th and 18th centuries (marchs, notables, priests), a communion table of 1710 signed by the ironmaker Claude Gilbert, and historical statues such as those of Saint Aignan and Saint Nicholas. Its dedicated cemetery, dismantled in 1882, once occupied the esplanade in front of the building, today a green space overlooking the Grand Crus road.

The exterior architecture reveals a sober western facade, pierced by an ogival bay adorned with a modern window (1977) and surmounting a blinded Romanesque portal. The massive foothills, flat tiles, and the stair turret of the quadrangular bell tower highlight its medieval anchor. Inside, the nave with octagonal pillars, the dogid vaults, and the lateral altars (including a table representing the Adoration of the Shepherds) illustrate the transition between Romanesque and Gothic. Remarkable objects include a wooden Christ (copy of an original stolen at the end of the twentieth century), octagonal baptismal fonts, and polychrome statues from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Ranked a historic monument in 1932, the church embodies the religious and wine history of Gevrey-Chambertin. Its location between the hills, close to the classified vineyards, and its central role in community life (former cemetery, adjacent presbytery) make it a privileged witness to the evolution of the village, from funeral practices to liturgical transformations. Local sources, such as the works of Charles Guillaume or Henri Vienne, document its architecture and its anchor in the Burgundy heritage.

The restoration campaigns aimed to preserve its specificities: stained glass windows, structure of the portal, or woodwork of the choir ( Louis XVI era). Despite the disappearance of certain elements (such as the original Christ), the building remains a rare example of a rural church at the crossroads of styles, where diocesan evolution, memory of local notables (such as Claude Jobert de Chambertin, figure of the wine trade), and modern adaptations (transfer of the cemetery, heritage protection).

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