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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church Saint-Denis de Toury, located in the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region, is a religious building dating back to the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. Ranked a Historical Monument in 1907, it preserves outstanding architectural elements such as a 12th century nave, remodeled in the 13th century, as well as collaterals, a tower-clocher and a gallery of the cloister of the ancient abbey, partially preserved on its western facade. The nave, flanked by two collaterals, rests on massive columns and is illuminated by broken arched bays, while the choir, slightly posterior (late XIII-early XIVth century), has traces of vaults on dogive cross.

The western facade of the church includes a gallery of the cloister accessible by two porches, one of which, main, opens on a trilobed broken arch gate decorated with foliage capitals. The lateral porch, simpler, dates from a later period. In the 18th century, the bell tower, damaged by lightning, was restored without major modification. In the 19th century, changes altered the south gallery (transformed into a grain greenhouse) and repairs involved the cover of the bell tower (1879, 1898), while stained glass windows created by the Lorin de Chartres workshops (1890-1899) and a stand (1898-1901) were added. A restoration of the vault took place in 1927.

The church houses remarkable furniture, including a painting classified as Historical Monument in 2003, "The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple", attributed to the painter Samuel Massé (1672-1753). The organs, inaugurated in 1900, are the work of Christian workshops, under the direction of Abbé Victor Joseph Henri Tronchet. Historically, Toury was a provost dependent on the abbey of Saint-Denis since the 7th century, and Suger, the future abbot of Saint-Denis, was its prior. Today, the church belongs to the parish of Saint Jeanne d'Arc in Beauce and the dean of Beauce.

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