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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church Our Lady of the Assumption of Amponville, located in Seine-et-Marne, is contemporary of the priory of Saint-Victor Abbey, now extinct, which was adjacent to it to the north. Its cemetery, originally placed in front of the southern façade, was moved out of the village at the end of the 19th century. The building, which was listed as a historical monument in 1926, features a hybrid architecture: a Romanesque nave with plant capitals and a later Gothic side.

The side door, narrow and equipped with defensive elements (shafts for beam), demonstrates a protection concern. The flat bedside, pierced by a triplet, and the two occults of the choir, once stained glass, are architectural peculiarities. The vaults of the choir wore false stone paintings, while a fresco of the Dit of the three dead and the three alive adorned the north wall, reminding of the vanity of earthly property in the face of death.

The western tympanum, decorated with lily and hermine flowers, commemorates the marriages of Anne of Brittany with Charles VIII (1491) or Louis XII (1499). The furniture includes two 18th-century steles dedicated to canon Louis Guillet, Prior of Amponville, as well as a rare liturgical pool with trilobed arch. These elements underline the spiritual and educational role of the priory, especially among poor children in the parish.

The church, a communal property, preserves traces of its connection to the Saint-Victor Abbey and its architectural evolution, reflecting the religious and social transformations of the region. Its inscription as a historic monument in 1926 attests to its heritage value, both for its architecture and for its unique interior decorations in rural areas.

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