Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame de Mont-devant-Sassey, founded in the 11th century on the ruins of a Celtic sanctuary before the 6th century, bears witness to a thousand-year-old religious occupation. Dagobert II was said to have driven the Celts there to extend the kingdom of the Franks. Originally built by the canonesses of Andenne after the Norman invasions, it presents a crypt of the 11th, a choir and an apse of the 12th, while the transept, the nave and the portal date from the 13th century. Its architecture mixes Romanesque influences (Rhenish plan inspired by the cathedrals of Verdun and Trier), Gothic (38 m clocher, stone roof added to the XIVe) and Renaissance (extension of the XVIIIe).

Fortified in the 15th to 16th centuries, the church is home to remarkable elements: two original Lorrain portals (XIVe), a organ stand rebuilt in 1928, and funeral monuments such as the slabs of the curés Galopin (1684-1736) and Person (1737-1770). Ranked in 1875, it attracts 12,000 annual visitors for its statues (Vierge de Pitié, Saint Roch), its pulpit to preach and its monumental paintings, such as the Martyr of Saint Quentin. Its maintenance is carried out by a local volunteer association, in collaboration with the town hall.

The site, open from May to September, also illustrates the architectural history of Lorraine, with impressive dimensions (37 m long, 19 m wide). The graves and statues, including a linked Christ and a Saint Peter, reflect his central role in religious and community life since the Middle Ages. Archaeological sources (1991 Congress) and the Merimée/Structurae bases document its evolution, while its steeple, visible from a distance, marks the landscape between Meuse and Argonne.

Future

Visitable on request, or daily in the summer, she sees more than 5000 visitors per year on her parvis.

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