Church of Saint Mary and the Assumption of Eppes dans l'Aisne

Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The church Sainte-Marie-et-de-l'Assomption d'Eppes is located in the commune of Eppes, in the department of Aisne, in the Hauts-de-France region. This village, mentioned from 650 under the name Apia or Appia, then belonged to the archbishop of Reims, London, before being ceded to the church of St. Geneviève de Laon. The name Eppes would derive from the Latin Appiarum, evoking a place suitable for bees, in accordance with its formerly wooded environment.

In the Middle Ages, Eppes was a fortified village of Laonnois, marked by the presence of a castle-fort contested during the Wars of Religion. In 1589 the Leagues seized it before the royalists took it back in 1592. Finally, the Leagues of Laon destroyed him in May of the same year. This tumultuous context may have influenced the construction or transformation of the church, although the sources do not specify its exact age.

The village is also linked to local historical figures, such as Jules Debordeaux (1843–70), resistant to the Prussians during the Franco-German war, buried in the cemetery of Eppes. Another notable figure, Caesar de Proisy (1788–16), a man of letters born in Eppes, illustrates the cultural anchor of the commune. These elements underline the central role of the church in collective memory, although its architectural history remains poorly documented.

Today, Eppes is a rural municipality of 438 inhabitants (2023), integrated into the attraction area of Laon. Its economy remains mostly agricultural (87.5% of the land in 2018), in a landscape marked by arable land and forest remains. The church, as an emblematic monument, bears witness to this history, both agricultural, seigneurial and resistant.

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