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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame de Septvaux, located in the Aisne region of Hauts-de-France, is an emblematic building of the Romanesque style, marked by later Gothic influences. Built on a Celtic sacred terrace, it dominates the village and its 12th century wash. Its orientation towards Jerusalem, its curved windows and its powerful foothills illustrate its medieval heritage. The building is distinguished by its two bell towers: one marking the entrance, the other overlooking the cross of the transept, culminating at 24.5 meters. Inside, an oak belfry houses three 1925 bells, replacing those stolen in 1917, themselves heirs of a bell of 1635 broken in 1876.

The construction began in the sixth century with a modest Romanesque nave, still visible today with its eight arcades and primitive sculptures. In the 11th century, a first western bell tower was added, with a dogive cross and carved capitals of fantasy animals. The 12th century saw a major enlargement: the choir and transept were rebuilt in an interior Gothic style, while the facade retained its Romanesque appearance for visual harmony. Two side chapels and a second bell tower, more aerial, then complete the whole. The coasts were rebuilt in 1840, and the damage of the First World War (1914-1918) led to a faithful restoration in the 1920s and 1930s, with some adaptations such as a flat wooden ceiling in the old bell tower.

Ranked a Historical Monument in 1909, the church houses remarkable elements: a wooden altar, 12th century baptismal fonts decorated with medieval sculptures, and two statues of the Virgin in the chapels of the transept. A stone staircase and a wall supported by nine foothills symbolically connect the building to the cemetery and at the bottom of the village. The site, surrounded by the forest of Saint-Gobain, attracts visitors for its architecture and its link to the castle nearby Coucy. The bells' manual bell rings perpetuate a village tradition, while traces of 19th-century paintings in the bell tower testify to its artistic evolution.

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