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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Aignan, located in Chalou-Moulineux (Essonne), is a religious building of mainly Romanesque architecture, built in the 11th century. It originally belonged to the chapter of Saint-Aignan d'Orléans, as evidenced by the preserved nave and Romanesque portal. His history was marked by his attachment to the Order of the Temple in 1183, after a donation by Queen Alix, the mother of Philip Augustus. The Templars carried out renovations and enlargements in the 13th century, before the church passed in 1307 to the order of the St John's Hospital of Jerusalem, which kept it until the Revolution.

In the 16th century, the church underwent major changes during the wars of religion, including the addition of a vault in a crib laminated in 1583. Its interior heritage includes frescoes of the choir, along with the Templar and Hospital Commanders, as well as stained glass windows illustrating the 19th century processions to the Saint Apolline source. These elements were preserved thanks to Abbé Huguenot, parish priest, who worked for his maintenance. In the 20th century, the commune undertook important works: renovation of the vault, demolition of the former presbytery to unblock the building, restoration of the exterior walls, and creation of a public garden named in honour of Abbé Huguenot.

The church's furniture includes several remarkable pieces, such as the 12th century baptismal fonts, a statue of the Virgin with the grape cluster (XVI century), and statues of St.Thomas Becket and local patron saints, St.Aignan and St.Apolline. Inscribed in the Historical Monuments since 1926, the church thus embodies almost a millennium of religious and architectural history, marked by the military orders and political upheavals of France.

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