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Origin and history

Saint George's Church in Richebourg, located in the Yvelines in Île-de-France, is a Catholic building rebuilt between the 16th and 19th centuries. It replaces an ancient Romanesque church of the twelfth century, whose remains remain in the present nave. Its architecture blends flamboyant Gothic, Renaissance and medieval elements, reflecting a building spanning centuries. Ranked a historic monument since 1905, it is distinguished by its bell tower-donjon with medieval appearances and gargoyles decorated.

The reconstruction began in the 16th century under the impulse of Charles de Sabrevois, lord of Richebourg, forced by a papal injunction after his assassination of the local priest. For lack of funds, he used the fortune of his Protestant wife, who made him poison for fear of spending. The church remained unfinished at his death (1537). The tower and the square bell tower were added in the seventeenth century, the sacristy in the eighteenth, and the central arrow with its four bell towers in the nineteenth.

The elongated plan of the building includes a five-span nave, a salient transept, and a square choir extended by a polygonal apse. Outside, the contrast between the bell tower and the flamboyant Gothic elements (gargoyles, filling bays) marks the evolution of styles. The interior preserves notable works: a 15th century Madonna, a stained glass window of the tree of Jesse (XVIe), and paintings by Savinien Petit (XIXe).

The church also houses sculptures from the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, such as a Saint Catherine and a Saint Nicholas. A communal property since its classification, it depends on the diocese of Versailles. The visits, on request, allow to admire its carved beams, its vault keys and its historical liturgical furniture.

According to local tradition, the building is an expiatory work related to the murder of the parish priest by Charles de Sabrevois. The written sources (Barruol, Deschamps) underline its central role in the religious heritage of the Yvelines, while the departmental archives preserve traces of her Virgin to the Child, symbol of her medieval heritage.

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