Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of the Nativity-de-Notre-Dame de Vauvillers, located in the Haute-Saône department in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, was rebuilt between 1767 and 1773 on the plans of the architect Claude-Étienne Chognard. It replaces a medieval building considered dangerous, integrating adjacent private land. The original project of J.-C. Colombot was ruled out in favour of that of Chognard, whose realization is distinguished by its generous dimensions and a main facade made of cut stone, embellished with Tuscan columns and a broken curved pediment. The interior furniture, designed by the sculptor Gerdolle de la Marche and architect Amoudru (confessionnals in 1782), completes this harmonious ensemble.

The church adopts a typical 18th-century plan in the Haute-Saône: a bell tower, a nave with three spans, a transept and a long choir of a polygonal apse, all vaulted with ridges. Its location, west of the village on a base compensating for the slope of the land, isolates major traffic axes. Ranked a historic monument in 1998, it houses 13 protected objects (tables, confessional, statues, crosses) and has recently benefited from important donations, including a bequest of €421,000 in 2021 by a parishioner, Huguette Pairon, for its renovation.

In 1789 the parish priest Jean-Baptiste Blancheville took the oath of the Revolution before retracting, illustrating the religious tensions of the time. The facade, considered one of Chognard's most accomplished works, combines classical elegance and robustness, with cornet pilasters surmounted by a crowned pyramid. The protection campaign launched in 2020 by the municipality and the Heritage Foundation bears witness to the local attachment to this heritage, marked by an emblematic religious architecture of the Enlightenment in Franche-Comté.

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