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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Vendeuvre-sur-Barse, located in the Aube department in the Great East, was built between 1510 and 1530 on land offered by Charles II of Amboise, local lord. This project, initiated by the parish priest Jean de Montlucin in 1502, was financed by the lords of Vendeuvre (Charles II, Georges III and Antoinette d'Amboise) and mainly by the prior, responsible for perceiving the tithe. The parishioners, in difficulty to contribute, saw an exceptional church erected in twenty years, unique in the region by its homogeneous plan and its cemetery surrounded by defensive walls.

The building, flamboyant Renaissance Gothic architecture, features a 53-metre nave, a 34-metre transept, and a 55-metre high arrow. Its northeast portal, star vaults and elegant pillars illustrate this stylistic transition. In 1725, lightning destroyed the bell tower, rebuilt with a secondary bell tower. The Revolution marked a troubled period: the church lost its bells, but received a pulpit from Clairvaux in 1793 and temporarily became episcopal seat under Jean-Baptiste Blampoix, the disputed bishop.

The twentieth century was marked by two disasters: in 1940, a fire ravaged the roof and vaults after a shell ignited a petrol tank. The weather of the winter 1940-1941 worsened the damage, leaving only the vaults of the transept standing. The restoration, completed in 1963, restored to the church its brilliance, with contemporary windows of Max Ingrand replacing those of the lost sixteenth century. Ranked a historic monument in 1907, it now houses retables from the 16th and 17th centuries, a Pietà in polychrome oak, and remarkable statues, witness to its rich past.

Among the interior treasures, the altarpiece of the high altar, attributed to François Girardon, dominates the choir with his central painting of the Judgment of Saint-Pierre painted by Claude Velut. The altarpiece of Saint Nicholas (1539), carved by Nicolas Halins, and the baroque altar dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, with its torso columns, illustrate the artistic diversity of the building. The chair of 1703, transferred from Clairvaux in 1793, and the stone bench of 1539, a rare example carved from this material, complete this heritage ensemble.

The bells, melted in 1861 at Robecourt (Vosges), bear the names of Celestine (2,500 kg), Marie, Angélique and Constance. The present organ, installed in 1963 by Michel-Merklin & Kuhn, incorporates ancient pipes and was inaugurated during the reopening of the church. The fourteen locally produced terracotta cross road stations and bronze neogothic chandeliers add to the decorative richness. Funeral liters on the pillars recall the former seigneury, abolished during the Revolution.

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