Eglise Saint-Blaise
ChurchHidden Treasure
Nestling in the heart of the Beauce region of Chartres, Saint-Blaise church boasts a remarkable 15th-century barrel vault with sculpted runners and a side bell tower topped by a unique aerial bell tower.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
In the heart of the village of La Chaussée-d'Ivry, on the edge of the Eure-et-Loir region, the church of Saint-Blaise stands as a discreet but eloquent reminder of the architectural ambitions of the rural Middle Ages. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1926, it offers heritage enthusiasts a lesson in stone and wood that the great cathedral buildings, too often the only ones in the spotlight, cannot provide. What immediately sets Saint-Blaise apart from so many other small churches in the region is the exceptional quality of its interior framework. The 15th-century wooden cradle that covers the entire length of the nave - with its crossbeams, puncheons and finely moulded and sculpted runners - is in itself a remarkable work of furniture art. The carpenters of the late Middle Ages used skills more commonly associated with market halls or cathedral roofs, bearing witness to the particular care taken with this parish building. A visit to the church also offers the surprise of a harmonious dialogue between different periods: Romanesque arches from the 12th century with moulded scrolls and tailloirs stand alongside Gothic alterations from the 15th century, while windows enlarged in the 17th and 18th centuries bear witness to the continuing life of the parish. Two small bays, untouched by successive modernisations, still retain their original size and give an idea of the extent of the transformations the building has undergone over the centuries. The south side bell tower, flanked by its polygonal staircase turret, crowns the whole with an unusual silhouette: its upper part, made of roofing framework, pierced by slate roof dormers and topped by an aerial bell tower, is more reminiscent of a Flemish town belfry than an ordinary Norman or Beauceron bell tower. This unusual profile makes Saint-Blaise an ideal subject for photographers and watercolourists in search of unexpected compositions. La Chaussée-d'Ivry itself, a quiet village in the Drouais region, provides a bucolic setting for a stroll. A visit to Saint-Blaise is a natural part of a tour of the Romanesque and medieval heritage of northern Eure-et-Loir, between Anet and Dreux, in a landscape of plains and hedged farmland typical of Chartres.
Architecture
Saint-Blaise church has a basic basilica layout, with a single nave ending in a flat chancel - a typical architectural feature of the Champagne and Beauceron Romanesque style - and a side aisle on the south side. This aisle, which is narrower than the nave, communicates with the chancel via two Romanesque double-rolled arches, with chamfered projections and finely moulded mouldings, revealing the technical mastery of 12th-century stonemasons. The whole structure is built from local limestone, a material that is omnipresent in medieval buildings in the Drouais and Beauce regions of Chartres. The most spectacular feature of the interior is undoubtedly the 15th-century wooden cradle that covers the entire length of the nave. This exposed framework combines straight crossbeams, uprights and runners running halfway up the walls, all adorned with mouldings and sculptures that bear witness to the decorative ambitions of the late Gothic period. This type of "panelled cradle" roofing, heir to the great frameworks of the 13th century, was particularly popular in rural buildings in the Paris-Seine Basin region as an economical but visually generous solution. Outside, the south side bell tower forms the dominant silhouette of the building. Built in the 15th century on the first bay of the aisle, this square bell tower is flanked by a polygonal stair turret that ends in a timber-framed open gallery, itself topped by a wooden and slate bell tower. This roof frame, pierced on three sides by slate roof dormers, gives the whole structure a lightness and compositional inventiveness that are rare in rural religious architecture in the Eure-et-Loir.
Related Figures
Saint Blaise (évêque de Sébaste, martyr vers 316) — saint patron de l'église et figure tutélaire de la paroisseLes comtes de Dreux — seigneurs suzerains de la région au XIIe siècle, vraisemblables commanditaires ou protecteurs de la construction de l'édifice romanMaîtres charpentiers locaux du XVe siècle — artisans anonymes à l'origine du remarquable berceau en bois sculpté de la nef et du clocher en charpenteInspecteurs des Monuments Historiques (début XXe siècle) — acteurs de la reconnaissance patrimoniale et de l'inscription de 1926
