Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Saint-Germain Church, located in Saint-Germain-Village in the Eure, was founded in the middle of the 11th century by the Abbey of Préaux, which built a Romanesque building with a nave of six spans, a transept, a tower and a choir flanked by absidioles. This monument is part of the movement of control of parishes by Norman abbeys at that time.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the church underwent major changes: reconstruction of the tower, replacement of the southern absidiole by a chapel, destruction of the central abside in favour of a flat bedside pierced by a large window, and re-perceived arms of the transept. These transformations reflect the architectural and liturgical evolutions of the late Gothic period.

During the French Revolution, the church barely escaped closure thanks to the opposition of the inhabitants, while the parish was to be attached to Saint-Ouen de Pont-Audemer. In the 19th century, several work campaigns marked its history: reduction of the nave to three spans (1830), reconstruction of the transept (1877), and addition of a Romanesque portal from the church of Notre-Dame-du-Pré of Pont-Audemer (1899), after its classification as a historical monument in 1886.

During the Second World War, bombardments damaged the stained glass windows, restored thanks to war damage funds. Today the building maintains a mixed structure, combining Romanesque elements (nef, modillons) and posterior additions (flat hair, southern chapel).

The church is distinguished by its 186 modillons adorning the cornices, arranged according to a precise reading, and by its position on a promontory in the heart of the village. These sculptures, typical of Romanesque art, as well as successive changes, testify to its evolution over nearly a thousand years.

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