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Origin and history

The Saint-Merry church of Linas finds its origins in an abbey founded in 936 by Louis IV of Outremer, dedicated to Saint Médéric (or Merry). A document of 884 already attests the presence of relics of Saint Merry transferred from Paris to Linas. Originally, the building was dedicated to St. Vincent before the bishop of Paris, Eudes de Sully, set up in 1207 a college of canons, transforming the church into a collegiate one. These canons, from the collegiate Saint-Marcel in Paris, rename the place Saint-Merry and undertake its partial reconstruction in the 13th century, of which today the base of the bell tower and the chorus with flat bedside remain.

In the 12th century, the seigneury of Linas belonged to the family Hescelin. In 1284, Marie de Hescelin and her husband, Amaury de La Hunière, sold their share of the seigneury to Saint-Merry priory for 710 livres parisis, with the depreciation granted by Philip III the Hardi. The chapter, which became ecclesiastical lord, gradually acquired income through purchases (including tithes, exceptionally authorized by Pope Innocent IV in 1246) rather than through donations, reflecting the decline of the great monastic patronage to the benefit of beggars and crusades. The internal conflicts between canons, linked to the management of censives and tithes, mark this period.

The church underwent major reshuffles in the sixteenth century after the partial collapse of the choir: reconstruction of the vaults, piercing of large bay windows (including a window of the bedside illustrating Saints and Crucifixion), and modification of the lower side. In the 19th century, facing its disrepair, the diocesan architect F. Blondel demolished in 1876 the three Romanesque spans of the nave to replace them with two neo-Gothic spans, in harmony with the existing choir. The work, carried out with economy, remains incomplete. Ranked a historic monument in 1928, the church closed in 1997 for restoration, after 19 years of work.

The building materials reflect this composite history: mill for the walls, sandstone for the pillars of the bell tower, Châtillon stone and Clamart liais for the western facade (XIXth century). The square bell tower, with a medieval stone arrow, dominates a plane elongated to three ships, without transept. The 19th century bedside stained glass windows represent holy figures and the Crucifixion. The building thus illustrates the architectural transitions between Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance, while testifying to the seigneurial and religious stakes of the medieval Essonne.

The site, located in the centre of Linas at the corner of Saint-Merry and Paul-Bert streets, overlooks the left bank of the Salmouille. A communal property since its classification, the church remains a symbol of the Franciscan religious heritage, mixing abbey history, seigneurial power and liturgical evolutions. Its prolonged closure in the 20th century highlights the contemporary challenges of preserving rural historic monuments.

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