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Origin and history

The Saint-Pierre des Genovéfains church, located in Châtillon-sur-Seine in Côte-d'Or, is an ancient abbey built between 1132 and 1206. It was built as the heart of Notre-Dame de Châtillon Abbey, founded in 1140 by canons of Saint-Vorles under the impulse of Saint-Bernard. These religious, who became regular canons around 1135, adopted the rule of Saint Augustine (bulle of regularization of 20 September 1138). The abbey, partially destroyed during the conflicts between Charles the Temerary and Louis XI, then during the Wars of Religion (1594), retained only his church.

In 1635 the abbey adopted the reform of Sainte-Geneviève, leading to the reconstruction of the convent building (capitular room, refectory, dormitory, etc.). The church porch, erected around 1662, was redesigned in 1727 by the addition of a Louis XV portal. The abbey was sold in 1797 (25 thermidor an V) to St. Peter's Hospital, which transformed it: the flat-bed choir and its side chapels were destroyed, while the transept and 7th span of the nave became rooms for the sick. The current bell tower, built in 1825 by architect Tridon, replaced the old one, destroyed in 1807.

The church, reassigned to worship in 1835, was dedicated to Saint Peter and listed as a historical monument in 1930. Its furniture, inventoried with cultural heritage, and its successive transformations (choir and sacristy remodelled in 1835), testify to its turbulent history. Since 2009, it has housed the collections of the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais, while remaining property of the municipality. Its three-nave Romanesque plan and its protected elements (façade, porch, convent building) make it a significant example of medieval religious architecture in Burgundy.

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