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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Martin-es-Vignes, located in Troyes in the Dawn, was initially a parish of the local diocese, dependent on the Abbé of Montiéramey until 1768. In 1582, lightning damaged its bell tower, but its total destruction was ordered in 1590 by the Count of Saint-Pol, the league commander of Troyes, to prevent its use as a shelter or reserve of stones during sieges. Its materials were used to build Chevreuse Fort.

A chapel dedicated to St.Jule, a Trojan martyr, was rebuilt on her original site, including a well linked to her martyr and known for healing fevers. This chapel, abandoned during the Revolution, was destroyed in 1833. The present church, rebuilt 2 km from Troyes on a plot given by Luc Lorey, incorporates a secondary dedication to Saint Jule, with stained glass windows narrating his life and a relic.

The building, classified as a historical monument in 1908, presents a rectangular plan with a 1681 gate decorated with the arms of Abbé Pierre Henri Thiebault de Montmorency-Luxembourg. Its bell tower dates from 1747, and its three-sided bedside is accompanied by a transept to a span. The furniture includes works from the 16th to the 18th century, such as limestone statues, paintings by Pierre Cossard, and an organ whose central buffet dates back to 1534.

The well of St.Jule, the presumed place of his beheading, was a pilgrimage site until its destruction in 1833. Nearby, a tomb called "Gaulois" was discovered in the 18th century, revealing an ascia and confirming the use of the site as a Jewish cemetery. The tile of the sixteenth century, rebuilt in 1850 by François Joseph Valtat, did not resist wear.

The church illustrates the religious tensions of the League wars, with its reconstruction symbolizing the resilience of the Troyan community. Its furniture, like the baptismal fonts in pink marble or the paintings of the Resurrection, reflects the sacred art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while its architecture blends sobriety with Baroque elements, such as the sundial of 1778.

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