Saint-Michel church

The full story

In the Middle Ages, as around Notre-Dame, haberdashers, drapers and candle sellers set up their stalls along the walls of Saint-Michel and in its churchyard. At the end of the 15th century, the parish undertook a complete rebuilding: begun in 1499, the new church was consecrated on 29 July 1529, while the great porch of the façade was still far from roofed. Its master builder was probably a local mason, Louis Gilbert, who died in 1528.

The façade tells the story of the Renaissance’s arrival. The three doorways and the lower part of the porches are still Gothic, then, around 1535, the builders fully adopted the new style. Engraved dates mark the progress of the work: 1537 above the arch of the south porch, 1540 on the leaf of the north door, 1541 on the south tower, 1551 above the central porch and 1557 on the north tower. The south tower stacks the classical orders, with a different style of column on each level: an idea still exceptional in France at the time.

The central porch is the most ambitious. Its coffered vault, filled with angels, is pierced in the middle by an opening that rises through a shaft to a lantern. The Last Judgement on the tympanum was commissioned on 13 July 1551 and carved on site. Beneath the statue of Saint Michael, the pedestal carved around 1535 shows mythological scenes, including Minerva, Venus and two Apollos, some inspired by Raphael; at the ends of the façade, Hercules fights the Cretan bull and the Nemean lion. Carved in the central porch and on the arch of the north porch, the motto “IEN SVIS DE LOISIR” refers to a generous donor, Jean de Loysie.

For lack of money, work stopped in 1571, leaving the towers unfinished; it resumed in 1634, and the City dates the completion of the façade to 1667. During the Revolution, the coats of arms on the portal were hammered off. The church was listed as a historic monument as early as 1840. Inside, against the east wall of the south transept, the carved frame of the Retable of the Departed survives, dedicated to the souls in purgatory and made between 1530 and 1534 by the sculptor Jean Damotte with the master mason Jean Brouhée. Paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries and an 18th-century pulpit complete the decoration.