Eglise Saint-Aubin
ChurchHidden Treasure
Eglise Saint-Aubin, located in La Ferté-Saint-Aubin (Loiret), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- La Ferté-Saint-Aubin, Loiret, Centre-Val de Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.7107, 1.9412
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00098777
A stone sentinel in the heart of the Sologne region, Saint-Aubin church boasts a thousand years of history, with its 11th-century Romanesque tower and chiselled flamboyant portal bearing witness to a tenacious faith engraved in limestone.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
In the heart of La Ferté-Saint-Aubin, a town in the Sologne region nestling between forests and lakes, the church of Saint-Aubin rises up from its composite silhouette with a quiet authority that centuries have not diminished. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1943, it stands alone as a reminder of the heyday of religious architecture in the Loiret region, from the most sober Romanesque to the most flamboyant and chiselled, not forgetting the ornamental fantasies of the 19th century. What makes this monument truly unique is the legibility of its historical layers. The Romanesque tower, probably erected in the 11th or 12th century, forms the original core of the building: its roughly dressed rubble at the base and its irregular stone and brick blocks in the upper sections tell the unvarnished story of the ups and downs of a long and repeatedly repeated construction. Flanked by a spiral staircase turret on the north side, it offers the attentive visitor a veritable lesson in the archaeology of buildings. Set against this Romanesque austerity, the flamboyant 15th or 16th century gateway looks like lace suddenly laid on linen. Its carefully crafted stone mouldings bear witness to renewed prosperity and a refined taste for late Gothic elegance. Visitors will also note the unusual decoration surrounding the portal and clock: a covering of engraved stones coated in coloured cement, the legacy of an attempt at Florentine-style ornamentation in the 19th century - an anachronistic curiosity that, far from detracting from the overall effect, adds a note of cultivated eccentricity. The experience of visiting the building is that of an intimate monument, on a human scale, that you can walk through without rushing. The light filtering through the 16th-century mullioned windows bathes the interior in a soft, meditative glow. The Solognot setting, with its quiet streets and brick and stone facades, naturally extends the contemplation well beyond the threshold of the church.
Architecture
Saint-Aubin church is characterised by the visible superimposition of several architectural campaigns spanning from the 11th to the 19th century. The Romanesque tower is the dominant feature: built of limestone rubble at the base, its upper sections reveal a heterogeneous mix of salvaged stone and brick fragments, traces of the successive alterations inherent in the building's eventful history. The stability of the whole is reinforced by buttresses, the lower courses of which have been carefully adjusted to reflect restoration work carried out in the 16th or 17th century. A spiral staircase turret, attached to the north side, gives access to the bell chamber, a common feature of ecclesiastical architecture in the Middle Loire. The bell storey opens onto three 16th-century windows with moulded mullions, which visually lighten the mass of the tower and introduce a Renaissance grammar already well assimilated by local workshops. The current gable roof, covered in slate with visible gables, is a late replacement for what was probably a pyramidal roof or an octagonal crown, the canonical shape of Romanesque bell towers in the Loire region. The flamboyant portal, the jewel in the crown of the west facade, features finely-worked stone mouldings in a masterful late Gothic style. The ogival window above, pierced after the fact, creates a dialogue between the periods. The unusual engraved coloured cement decoration framing the gateway and clock, added in the 19th century in a neo-Florentine style, is a historicist fantasy that sets this façade apart from all its counterparts in the Sologne region.
Related Figures
Saint Aubin d'Angers (évêque du VIe siècle dont le culte a donné son nom à la paroisse et à la ville)Seigneurs de La Ferté-Saint-Aubin (mécènes présumés des campagnes de construction médiévales et Renaissance)Artisans gothiques du XVe-XVIe siècle (auteurs du portail flamboyant et des fenêtres à meneaux)Artisan ou entrepreneur du XIXe siècle (auteur du décor de ciment coloré d'inspiration florentine)Inspecteurs des Monuments Historiques (responsables de l'inscription protectrice de 1943)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Eglise Saint-Aubin located?
Eglise Saint-Aubin is located in La Ferté-Saint-Aubin, Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire region, France.
When was Eglise Saint-Aubin built?
Eglise Saint-Aubin dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Eglise Saint-Aubin open to visitors?
Eglise Saint-Aubin is currently closed to visitors.