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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Saint-Denis church of Serifontaine, dedicated to the patron of the Vexin, presents a Romanesque nave of the 11th century, sober and lacking initial ornaments. Its western window, the only pure Romanesque vestige of the 12th century, contrasts with the later classical portal. The base of the bell tower, built between the late 12th and early 13th centuries, has a primitive Gothic style, although its completion remains uncertain. Oversized foothills suggest an ambitious, never-ending bell tower project.

The choir, rebuilt after a fire in 1422, illustrates a marked stylistic transition. Started at the beginning of the 16th century in an exuberant flamboyant Gothic (star vaults, carved decorations), it ends in a attenuated Renaissance style, visible in the ionic capitals and full-cindered windows. The first span, unfinished, preserves traces of expected veins, while the southern chapels, contemporary of the bedside, display a pure flamboyant. The northern collateral, later added (second half of the sixteenth century), introduced more assertive Renaissance elements, such as Corinthian pilasters.

Ranked a historic monument in 1928, the church houses remarkable furniture, including a 16th century altar dais representing the instruments of the Passion, and a Flemish altarpiece of the same century. These restored and protected works bear witness to North European artistic influences in Vexin. The stained glass windows of the bedside, partially rebuilt in the 19th century, complete this ensemble. The building, disused as a residential parish since 1989, remains a singular example of the superposition of styles, reflecting the vagaries of its constructive history and liturgical changes.

The major changes between 1650 and 1671, attested by a wall inscription, marked the end of the major medieval yards. The present altar, erected in 1769 under the impulse of Count de Bourdeilles, local lord, closes a period of baroque reshuffles. The distribution of costs between large decimators (for the choir) and parishioners (for the nave) explains the architectural disproportions, frequent in rural churches. The absence of a resident parish priest since 1989 has relegated the building to occasional use in the parish of North Vexin.

The church preserves two classified historical plaques: one of 1545, evoking a pious foundation by Jean Dufour and Jean de Maricourt, the other of 1479, referring to the reconsecration after the fire of 1422. These documents shed light on the relationship between the building, its donors and the unrest of the Hundred Years War. The stele of the 19th century benefactors Borgnis-Laporte, recalls the communal anchor of this heritage, between religious memory and local history.

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