Saint-Pierre-the-Churches was a small commune located at the edge of the Vienna, close to Chauvigny to which it is attached nowadays. It is remarkable by its church préromane containing a whole of frescos, former to the year thousand, updated in 1850 and recently recognized like perhaps the oldest frescos of Western Europe.

History

Saint-Pierre-the-churches was located at the edge of an old Roman way which went from Poitiers ( Lemonum ) to Bourges ( Avaricum ) and which crossed the river using a ford. This ford located at less than one day of walk of Lemonum supported the establishment of an artisanal activity and a habitat at the 1st century. On the other hand one does not know very well how this site evolved/moved until the 10th century, one found burials mérovingiennes, and the church by its plan, its technique of construction and the Fresque S which decorate the Abside, make think of the Carolingian Art.

The church

It consists of a Nef single, rectangular measuring 13 meters out of 9,20 meters and of an apse in half-circle of a diameter of 5,75 meters. The roof in tiles punts and surmounted of small a locher is covered with slates. It was transformed during the centuries:
  • In 1628 the interior coatings were remade, it represent in the nave a decoration in false stone ocher-red joints on bottom creams decorated with a made plank of IHS and MY , the monograms of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. The frescos of the apse were also covered by this coating, until their discovery by the Couhé abbot in 1850.
  • In 1778, the transom of the main door was restored
  • At the 18th century two of the nine windows which light the church were widened.

Frescos of the apse

It was believed a long time that these frescos dated from the 12th century, and that they were of poor invoice, it is Mr. Paul Deschamps towards 1950 which knew to recognize in them Carolingian frescos former to the year thousand.

  • Pourquoi can one affirm that they are pre-Romance frescos?

    • Pallet of four colors (the white, gray, yellow ocher and red blood stone) as in the Crypt of Abbey of German Saint to Auxerre.
    • the form of the G of Longinus which is not seen any more in the posterior inscriptions at the 10th century.

The recent dating with the Carbon-14 carried out by an archeologist, Bénédicte Palazzo-Bertholon, makes it possible to put an end to years of polemic and to affirm that they were carried out between 782 and 984, which makes of them the oldest frescos of France with those of the crypt of saint-Germain of Auxerre.

One can still nowadays distinguish several scenes inspired from the life from Jesus and Marie.

  • One can see axis of the apse on the left:
    • In top, the Visitation : This Fresco represents the meeting between Elisabeth and Marie, her cousin. Marie is accompanied by a maidservant who keeps away a little; behind Elisabeth, two character, one of them are held is Zacharie, her husband, the other is a maidservant. The five characters are haloed and painted on a bottom ocher-red, this fresco is in rather bad condition.
    • In bottom, the ride and worship of the magi : In the ride the Mages are represented in the shape of three riders carrying a helmet and a lance, their horses are richly harnessed. One finds them in the scene of the worship decorating the same register, there they present great cuts containing their offering. The Virgin Mary and the Jesus child his represented profile, as it was the tradition before the Romance time. The Jesus child tightens the hands towards the magi as a sign of acceptance of their present. The Magi, here, do not have crowns because they are not kings, it is only as from the 12th century that the Magi will be compared to kings.
    • Beyond the northern column: the crucifixion , it is the part best preserved. The cross is broad and bordered of a double line, with the top of the arms one sees two circles, one contains the moon, the other the sun.
The Christ is represented beardless, the body covered with a simple loincloth, the united legs are with the top of a chalice which represents the vase in which the blood of Christ was collected. On both sides of Christ under the arms of the cross one can see two characters:
on the left, the character is vêtu of a clear tunic and carries a cape attached to the shoulder, and a pointed helmet, it acts of Saint Longin (as indicates it the Longinus inscription), it bores the side of Jesus with a lance.
on the right, the character is vêtu same tunic and it is capped with a species of turban, it carries a bucket of skin in the left hand and 'a long pole furnished with a sponge in the hand droite.
A little with the variation, there are two other characters, they are two women, who are undoubtedly Marie-madeleine on the right (a partially erased inscription, Maria Magdalene remains still nowadays), and Marie on the left.
    • Under the crucifixion, there remains a fragment of fresco representing a crowned character who would be the king Hérode .
    • In return on the western wall: Marie Jacobé , this fresco represents a woman of face, holding in front of it a cloth, which is undoubtedly the empty shroud of Christ, it is identified, by an almost illegible inscription nowadays, like Maria Jacobi, the mother of the apostle holy Jacques.

  • On the right of the axial window
    • In top: the Nativity and the bath of the child , in the upper part a white line in arc of circle materializes the cave where Marie rests after the birth of the Jesus child. In bottom one distinguishes three women. One of them, on the left, holds in each hand a small amphora, it seems to take the public with witness. That of the center presents a white clothing, the third appears to hold the child darling with end of arm with the top of a basin to give him its first bath. Unfortunately this fresco is partially unobtrusive.
    • With the lower register: the combat of the Michaelmas against the dragon , in this scene the archangel is surrounded by curved lines ocher-red, only is detached in white its lance which transpierces the side of the dragon, this last twisting pain.

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