The best road cycling routes in Bois Au Clercs

In Grison stone

Located on the banks of the Blaise River, southwest of Dreux in the prestigious Crécy-Couvé district, the Marquise de Pompadour's residence from 1746 to 1757, the seigneury of Saulnières came under the Marquise's ownership in 1754. Some remarkable elements of the church's furnishings are undoubtedly due to the generosity of this patron of the arts. The Saint-Pierre church, built on the heights of the commune of Saulnières, is believed to have originally been the church of a Benedictine convent, which ceded it to its inhabitants in 1571 after the sack of their place of worship in 1562, during the First Battle of Dreux. While the cartularies of Saint-Père, Beaulieu, and Belhomer mention the town from the first half of the 12th century, we have no documents on the church before its transfer to the commune. The building (34 m by 11.5 m), oriented, with a single nave of four bays extended by a choir bay, ends with a three-sided chevet extended along the axis by a sacristy. The walls are made of cobblestone and grison rubble, while the twelve buttresses are sandstone. The steeply pitched roof is covered with tiles, and, practically in its center, stands a bell tower with a hexagonal base crowned by a spire of the same shape. The western door is framed by two buttresses: it is surmounted by a rose window that probably dates from the 19th-century construction campaign. In the south wall, at the level of the first bay, a blocked, semicircular-arched entrance door suggests a Romanesque construction. From the second bay, light streams in generously through eight openings: semicircular arches for those in the nave and Gothic-style for the four choir bays; a fifth, axial, was blocked when the altarpiece was installed. The 16th-century stained-glass windows were destroyed during a bombing raid during the Second World War; only a few elements, listed as Historic Monuments, remain in the sacristy. The vault, covered with shingles, must have been painted, as evidenced by the hallmark decorated with black and white diamonds and chevrons, likely from the 16th century. The great simplicity of the architecture is offset by the relative richness of the furnishings. The late 15th-century stone statues representing Saint Barbara, a religious figure without attributes, and two angels from the same period constitute a fine example of Gothic sculpture, albeit lacking the two angels purchased in the early 20th century for the Louvre, where they are now on display. The choir's layout could date back to the time of Madame de Pompadour: the doors, open on either side of the central section, are surmounted by two painted and gilded wooden statues, Saint Peter and Saint Sebastian. The central section is crowned by God the Father, and the canvas depicts Saint Peter freed from his chains by an angel. A fragmentary funerary liter is still visible inside and outside. In 2003, the Sauvegarde de l'Art Français (French National Art Foundation) granted €10,000 in aid to help repair the structure and roof of the building, whose condition had been aggravated by the 1999 storm.

The church dates from the 11th century. The nave is separated from the side aisles by pointed arches supported by square piers. Two stained glass windows have been listed as historical monuments as objects since 1908. They contain elements from the 16th century, the preserved fragments of which are reused, notably in the form of macedonia. They were in fact destroyed in 1940 and reassembled in 1959 in the tympanums of bays no. 3 and 5. A 17th century wooden statue, perhaps representing Saint Paul, is also listed as a historical monument as objects.

The building is surrounded by the cemetery. It is rectangular in plan. The bell tower is located at the west end and a sacristy is on the north facade. The north and south facades are decorated with polychrome diamond-shaped stained glass windows.

Construction period: 12th - 15th century, church remained unfinished. Classified by decree of December 19, 1907.

The castle of Senonches. You will find an information point inside.

Beautiful little village, typical of the region.

The church of Saint-Pierre de la Ville aux Nonnains probably dates from the creation in this locality of a convent of nuns in the 13th century, which was dependent on the Fontevriste priory of Belhomert consecrated in 1136 by act of Innocent II. The building also underwent several campaigns of embellishment and transformation between the 15th and 17th centuries as indicated by the addition of a "caquetoire", the creation of the bell tower, the panels sculpted in "folds of napkins" of the 15th century entrance door, as well as the altarpiece and statuary dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, listed in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments.