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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativity de Bérulle, located in the Aube department in the Grand Est region, is a religious building entirely built between 1510 and 1515. She then came under the Diocese of Sens and the Dean of the River of Vanne, under the bishop's collation. Its architecture and furniture, including polychrome wooden statues (Christ on the Cross, Virgin with the Child) and baptismal fonts decorated with biblical scenes, testify to the artistic richness of the sixteenth century. Viollet-le-Duc, impressed by his heritage value, campaigned for his classification as Historic Monument, obtained in 1840.

The remarkable elements of the church include a doorbell flanked by a turret surmounted by an elegant arrow, as well as 40 panels of deep blue and red windows, classified for their exceptional quality. In the seventeenth century, a tribute was paid to Pierre de Bérulle, a cardinal from the place, by the addition of two cardinal hats on the tympanum of the portal. The furniture is also enriched with an Education of Mary in polychrome wood (15th century) and a wrought iron choir fence (18th century), illustrating the additions after its initial construction.

Ranked among the first historical monuments of France in 1840, the church now belongs to the commune of Bérulle. Its state of conservation and its location (4 Place de l'Église) make it an accessible site, although the sources mention a geographical precision deemed a priori satisfactory (level 6/10). The references to Mérimée and the observatories of religious heritage underline its importance in the architectural and cultural history of Champagne-Ardenne (present-day Grand Est).

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