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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The church Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Jouy-sous-Thelle, located in the Oise department, is a parish Catholic building built between 1572 and 1588, probably at the initiative of Cardinal Nicolas de Pellevé, a native of the village and head of the Catholic League. The nave, which remained unfinished due to the seizure of the cardinal's property in 1585, saw its vaults completed only in 1606, thanks to a gift from his niece, Françoise de Pellevé. The total absence of Gothic influence and its grounded plan make it an architectural singularity in the region.

The church was dedicated in 1588, but its bell tower, originally located on the choir, was moved over the cross of the transept in 1743, causing tensions between parishioners and decimators. The funeral niches of the cruises once housed the tombs of the local lords, including those of the Pellevé family, with partially preserved white marble statues. During the Revolution, the building was attached to the diocese of Beauvais and then to the diocese of Amiens between 1801 and 1822.

Ranked a historic monument in 1921, the church houses remarkable furniture, including an 18th-century rock altarpiece, a beam of medieval glory, and side tables with paintings restored in 2009. Today, affiliated with the parish of Sainte-Thérèse d'Auneuil, it hosts monthly Masses. Its architecture, marked by Corinthian pilasters and cradle vaults, blends exterior sobriety and interior decorative richness, with carved motifs such as roses and scallop shells.

The outside, of cut stone with almost invisible joints, contrasts with the inside where the vaults, added a posteriori, break the stylistic homogeneity. The windows, without ebrasing, interrupt the cornice, while the outer niches, surmounted by pediments, animate the walls. Despite its visible incompletion (stones waiting, truncated nave), the building embodies a rare testimony of the religious Renaissance in Picardia, devoid of any Gothic ornamentation.

The classified furniture includes an altar-tabernacle-retable set of the eighteenth century, restored after centuries of neglect, and a 16th century beam of glory, adorned with a cross Christ and symbols of the Tetramorph. The lateral retables, works of a workshop of Gisors, frame anonymous paintings depicting hagiographic scenes, such as Saint Roch as a pilgrim. These elements illustrate the liturgical and artistic evolution of the building, between medieval heritage and Baroque influences.

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