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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Saint-Martin church of Monthenault replaces a medieval building destroyed during the First World War. The old church, dated 1677, was a modest building 19 metres long, illuminated by five bays and equipped with a gate accessible by a staircase of nine steps. Its proximity to the front line made it a bombardment target, resulting in its total destruction.

The reconstruction began in 1929 under the direction of architect Albert-Paul Müller, who graduated and settled in Bruyères-et-Montbérault. The project, approved in 1925 and subsequently redesigned in 1928, was made possible by a donation of land in 1929. The present church, completed around 1932-1934, adopts a reverse T plan, with a bell tower and a chapel of fonts surrounding the narthex. Its decor includes stained glass windows by Louis Barillet (primed in Paris and Brussels), frescoes by Eugene Chapleau, and a bas-relief of facade attributed to a sculptor named Vadens, perhaps Ernest-Hippolyte Wadens, a student of Fine Arts.

The building combines concrete and limestone, with an elliptical vault and an openwork octagonal arrow. Inside, a tombstone by Jean de Chambly evokes local history, linked to the crusades and the founding of the Canadian city of Chambly. Ranked a historical monument in 2001 and then in 2025, the church symbolizes the postwar reconstruction and religious artistic innovation of the 1930s.

Soissons' diocesan cooperative played a key role in its reconstruction, with local companies like Pouchol for masonry. The inauguration took place on April 2, 1934, in the presence of Bishop Mennechet of Soissons. The artists collaborating with Müller, such as Barillet and Chapleau, were major figures of modern sacred art, combining humanism and innovative techniques (glass straps, frescoes, carved concrete).

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