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Origin and history

Notre-Dame-de-la-Basse-Ouvre de Beauvais church, located at the foot of Saint-Pierre Cathedral, is a vestige of the old Carolingian cathedral built at the end of the 10th century. His name comes from his status as a "low work" after the construction of the Gothic cathedral, called the "High Work". The current building, reduced to three and a half spans, was originally much larger, with nine spans and an imposing transept. The stones used for its construction came in part from buildings destroyed during the destruction of Beauvais in the third century, which explains their small cubic apparatus.

The Basse-Oeuvre suffered several major fires, notably in the 11th and 13th centuries, which resulted in partial reconstructions and architectural modifications. After the 1225 fire, which ravaged the choir, Bishop Milon de Nanteuil decided to build a new Gothic cathedral. The Lower Work was then amputated with several spans to give way to the flamboyant Gothic transept designed by Martin Chambiges in the 16th century. Despite these transformations, she continued to serve as a parish church and Baptistery until the French Revolution.

During the Revolution, the church was closed to worship in 1791 and turned into a wood depot. Threatened by demolition in the 19th century, it was saved by its classification as historic monuments in 1840. Restored between 1864 and 1867, it was reopened to worship, although its interior, now very clean, no longer reflects the medieval decorative richness revealed by archaeological excavations. The latter revealed murals, mosaics and stained glass in grey, attesting to an ornamentation of great richness in the Carolingian era.

The excavations carried out between 1964 and 1985 by Émile Chami provided a better understanding of the early extension of the Carolingian cathedral and its architectural evolution. They revealed details such as the foundations of absidioles, consecration crosses engraved on the pillars, and stone benches along the walls. The church, though reduced and modified, remains a valuable testimony of the religious architecture of the High Middle Ages in France.

Today, the Basse-Oeuvre retains modest furniture, mainly composed of elements from the 16th and 19th centuries, including two polychrome wooden statues classified as historical monuments. Its interior, sober and stripped, contrasts with the original decorative richness, but its complex history and successive transformations make it an emblematic monument of Beauvais and Hauts-de-France.

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