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Origin and history

The Saint-Vigor Saint-Étienne royal church of Marly-le-Roi was offered by Louis XIV to the inhabitants of the parishes of Marly-Chastel and Marly-Bourg after his acquisition of the Barony in 1676. The king, wishing to modernize the village near his new royal residence (1679-1685), merged the two existing parishes in 1681 and personally financed the construction of a new building. The old churches, Saint-Étienne (in ruins) and Saint-Vigor (degraded), were replaced by this project entrusted to Jules Hardouin-Mansart, royal architect. The first stone was laid on 24 April 1688 by Louis de Rusé, controller of Marly Castle, and the church was consecrated less than a year later, on 1 April 1689.

The church incorporates traditional elements, such as a Gothic oculus and a 42-metre side bell tower, while adopting Baroque innovations inspired by the Place des Vosges, such as vertical chaining on the façade. Inside, the initial sobriety was enriched in 1710 by the transfer of the high altar from the chapel of the Palace of Versailles, where Louis XIV had married Madame de Maintenon. This furniture, classified as a Historical Monument in 1905, includes statues attributed to Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet. Among the relics are the entrails of Alexander Bontemps, the king's first valet and governor of Marly, buried under the choir.

The French Revolution marked a violent turning point for the building: in 1789 its furniture was looted, and in 1794 three of its four bells were melted to make cannons. The last bell, weighing 3500 pounds, was recast in 1824 to create the two current bells, Antoinette and Eléonore. Among the preserved elements, a medieval bell of 1473, the Ave Maria, adorned with a Saint Michael terrorizing a dragon, was given to the church in the late nineteenth century. The building, inscribed in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments in 1977, also houses remarkable stained glass windows, such as that of 1903 representing Saint Thibaut of Marly offering lilies to Louis IX.

The church stands out as the only rural church built by Mansart, inspired by his versatile work (Our Lady of Versailles). Its current liturgical furniture, created in 2018 by Jean-François Ferraton (altar, ambon and seat in onyx and wood), contrasts with historical elements, such as the pulpit and the carved oak organ stand. The site also preserves symbolic traces of Louis XIV, such as the back of his seat reused to support Christ on the cross in the chapel of Calvary.

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