Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Saint-Aventin Church of Creney-près-Troyes, located in the Aube department in the Grand Est region, is a building whose oldest parts date back to the 12th century, including part of the gate and the base of the tower. Most of the current structure, however, dates from the 16th century, while the portal was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. The apse, three-sided, is vaulted, and the church houses exceptional furniture, including two 12th century statues, a Virgin with Child in polychrome limestone and a statue with donors.

The church has had several institutional dependencies over the centuries: it originally belonged to the chapter Saint-Pierre de Troyes following a donation by Bishop Haton, then was attached to the hospice Saint-Nicolas de Troyes from 1208. In the 18th century it became a priory-curtain of the order of Saint-Augustin. His notable furniture features include a 14th-century funerary slab commemorating Jehan de Creney and Marguerite de Bruillecourt, as well as a 16th-century polychrome wooden statue representing the Education of the Virgin.

Classified as historical monuments by order of 6 May 1907, the church also preserves monumental paintings of the sixteenth century depicting the apostles, a sculpted group of the Virgin of Pitié of the same period, and a reliquary of Aventin offered by the chapter Saint Stephen in 1605. The monument now depends on the municipality of Creney-near-Troyes and remains accessible at heritage events or on request in the town hall.

Four priors succeeded each other in the 17th and 18th centuries: Louis Béguin in 1715, Michelin in 1756, Jean-Remi Cloquet in 1761, and Henri Michelin in 1789. These figures mark the local religious history, linked to the administration of the priory. The building, with its architecture and furniture, bears witness to the artistic and spiritual evolutions of the Champagne region over nearly nine centuries.

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