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Origin and history

The church Saint-Martin de Néry, located in the Oise department in the Hauts-de-France region, is a composite building whose oldest parts date back to the 1140s. Its late Romanesque bell tower, characterized by a triumphal arch carved of broken sticks and a vault in a broken cradle, is attributed to the same workshop as the choir of Saint Peter's church of Béthisy-Saint-Pierre. This bell tower, 37 meters high, was surmounted in the sixteenth century by a stone arrow flanked by four flamboyant bell towers, replacing an earlier Romanesque structure.

The choir, built between 1260 and the beginning of the 14th century, illustrates the late radiant style with a five-paned apse and reamped windows without capital columns, an innovation that appeared after 1260. The vaults and stained glass windows of the choir were redone in the 16th century, during which time the early nave, described as dark and low, underwent major transformations. The present nave, of neo-Gothic style, was inaugurated in 1901 after the demolition of the Romanesque nave and its coasts at the end of the 19th century.

The church houses remarkable furniture, including 16th century stalls classified as historical monument, decorated with mercies and accomodations carved with flamboyant and reborn Gothic motifs. The fragments of Renaissance stained glass, dating from the first half of the 16th century, represent Doctors of the Church as St Jerome and St Gregory the Great. These elements, along with the bronze bell of 1727, testify to the artistic and historical richness of the site.

Under the Old Regime, the parish of Néry depended on the diocese of Senlis, with the chapter of the cathedral as a collator of the cure. The big tithe returned to the Abbey of Royallieu. After the Revolution, the parish was attached to the diocese of Beauvais and then integrated into the parish consolidation of the autumn valley in the 20th century. Today, the church, affiliated with the parish of Verberie, hosts early Sunday Masses five times a year.

The church's exterior architecture reveals a nave in irregular bells, contrasting with the bell tower and the cut stone choir. The bell tower, with flat buttresses, features a belfry floor adorned with broken arched groined bays, surrounded by columns with capitals carved with water leaves and monstrous heads. The octagonal arrow, openworked with doculi and rectangular openings, is a remarkable example of 16th century flamboyant art.

Inside the church combines Romanesque elements, such as the base of the vaulted bell tower in a cradle, and Gothic additions, including the large arcades of the neo-Gothic nave. The capitals of the triumphal arch, adorned with water and volute leaves, as well as the abutments of the arches, illustrate the transition between the Romanesque and Gothic styles. The 17th century baroque altarpiece, although devoid of its original painting, and carved stalls, highlight the artistic evolution of the building throughout the centuries.

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