Notre-Dame de Germigny-l'Exempt

Notre-Dame de Germigny-l'Exempt is a Roman Catholic church in the town of Germigny-l'Exempt in Berry, France. It was built in the 12th century in the Romanesque architectural tradition.

History

The exceptionally tall bell tower-porch was built after the siege of 1108 by Louis VI the Fat^[1] as a symbol of the Capetian ″Pax Dei″.^[2] The inconographic program of its inner portal of 1215^[3] is inherited from the North porch of the West portal of the abbey church in Saint-Gilles du Gard and the North porch of the West portal of the Laon Cathedral.^[3] The tympanum showing a Sedes Sapientiae is meant to celebrate the triumph of the Church (the Virgin being symbolic of the Catholic Church) upon the heretics whose common point is to reject the real presence in the eucharist.^[4]

Notre-Dame de Germigny-l'Exempt is listed as a monument historique since 1912.^[5] According to the Law of 31 December 1913, the object of which is to protect the historical monuments classified by the State, the classified tower-porch of Notre-Dame belongs to the French Republic as its ″inalienable″ property.

References

^ Legeard, Emmanuel (September 2021). "Le siège de Germigny en Bourbonnais : une page méconnue d'histoire". Bulletin de la Société d'Emulation du Bourbonnais (in French). 80 (3): 388–404.
^ Legeard, Emmanuel (2021). "Notre-Dame de Germigny-L'Exempt: un patrimoine à surveiller". La Gazette du Patrimoine (in French) (May).
^ ^a ^b Jean Wirth: débats autour d'un portail (in French)
^ Legeard, Emmanuel (February 2021). "Saint-Gilles, Laon, Germigny : Iconologie d'une représentation politique de la Vierge dans le "style 1200"". De Medio Aevo (in French). 15 (1): 231–240. doi:10.5209/dmae.73298. S2CID 234067807.
^ Base Mérimée: Eglise, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)

Bibliography

Legeard, Emmanuel (2022). Germigny-l'Exempt ou les Trois Deniers de Gaspard [Germigny-l'Exempt or Gaspard's three coins] (in French). Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-14-027811-2.