Prestige du Patrimoine du VEXIN
From the Merovingian era to the 21st century, the church of Vétheuil and its immediate surroundings have witnessed a great historical fresco making this site a remarkable place of memory.
Hundred Years War, famines, plagues, destructions, revolution, storms, lightning, the church testifies of an extraordinary resilience of the monument and the inhabitants of the region. It also bears witness to happy episodes: brotherhood celebrations, pilgrimages, baptisms of bells.
These episodes deserve to be better known and recounted.
Have you ever admired a church's forecourt or wandered through its interior, wondering what all the paintings, sculptures, stained-glass windows and hangings might represent: a saint, an apostle, an evangelist, a virtue?
Continue reading "Which saint should I worship?"
When visiting the church in Vétheuil, you'll probably have noticed - on display in one of the south chapels - the uniform of the bedeau (or Swiss guard). This function, which has now disappeared from our churches (with the exception of a few religious buildings in Alsace, including Strasbourg Cathedral), deserves a little more attention.
Continue reading "The Bedeau or "Church Swiss"" (in French)
Saint-Vincent is the patron saint of winegrowers and vineyards. He was celebrated in VÉTHEUIL by the Confrérie of the same name, which had its own chapel in the church and engaged in a number of rituals with all its members.
Continue reading "La Confrérie de Saint-Vincent" (The Brotherhood of Saint Vincent)
Their initials are intertwined in La Chapelle extérieure sud of the VÉTHEUIL church, which we know owes its construction to the generosity of the Seigneur de la Roche-Guyon and his wife Anne, but what do we know of their history and why did they finance the work?
Continue reading "Anne de LAVAL and Louis de SILLY: a beautiful love story "
After the war, all the church's stained glass windows were blown out. All except the two Renaissance windows in La Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, which had been removed - what a happy coincidence! - just before the hostilities. For years, the openings were blocked with boards, with two major drawbacks: the church was plunged into darkness, and it was no longer protected against humidity. This situation was a godsend for swallows and bats, who found shelter in the monument.
Continue reading " The restoration of stained glass windows "
From August 19 to 31, 1944, the American army launched an offensive against the German army on the area covering the current Vexin Regional Natural Park: these fights are named "Battle of the Vexin". This was the only battle where armored vehicles from both sides clashed.
Continue reading " The war and the church of Vétheuil "
Dendrochronological dating (from the Greek dendron, tree, and chronos, time) is a method of dating a building by studying the growth rings of the tree trunks used for the frame.
Continue reading " The frame reveals its secrets "
" Instructions for the conservation, maintenance and restoration of diocesan buildings, and particularly cathedrals".
This is the title of the publication that was distributed in 1848 to the architects of diocesan buildings.
Continue reading "Instructions for the maintenance of churches: the contribution of VIOLLET-LE-DUC "
Since the 19th century, several fortuitous discoveries around the Notre-Dame church and inside it have revealed the existence of a Merovingian necropolis (*).
Continue reading "The Merovingian Necropolis
Since the dawn of time, humans have taken the habit of engraving on stone signs and drawings wherever they could leave traces of their passage: caves, stones, monuments, cathedrals, churches, places of habitation.
Continue reading " The mysterious language of stones "