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Origin and history

The church Saint-Étienne de Janville, located in the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region, is a religious building dating back to the 12th century. It consists of a vaulted apse choir in cul-de-four and a nave flanked by collaterals, supported by bow-buttons. The unfinished octagonal tower, overcoming the choir, and the remains of the Benedictine priory of the 12th century, under the jurisdiction of the archdeacon of Beauce, testify to its complex history. The building, in ruins in 1509, was partially rebuilt in the 16th century with a new ship and a tower-clocher, while later modifications (XVIIth–XIXth centuries) included the addition of a gate, the recasting of the vault, and the installation of stained glass windows signed Lorin (1890–1921).

Classified as a Historical Monument in 1934, the church houses remarkable furniture, including a painting by Jean-Louis-César Lair, The Baptism of Christ (1809), registered in 2003. His stained glass windows, made by the Lorin de Chartres workshops, illustrate biblical and ornamental scenes, such as the stoning of Saint Stephen or the seven sacraments. These elements, combined with a hybrid architecture (roman for the choir, gothic for the nave), reflect the stylistic and religious evolutions of the region, marked by the influence of priories and local sponsors.

The history of the church is also that of the tensions between the local community and the Benedictines of Saint-Martin-des-Champs (Paris), who owned the chapel of the priory as enclave in the building. In the 19th century, major restorations (brick vault, window enlargement) and the addition of a sacristy (1904) modernized the building. Today, Saint Stephen's church, attached to the parish of Saint Jeanne d'Arc in Beauce, remains an architectural and artistic testimony of the religious and social dynamics of Beauce, from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era.

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