Breteuil-sur-Iton (canton of Breteuil-sur-Iton, Eure) Church of Saint-Sulpice

    This church, which was given in the mid-11th century by William Fitz Osbern, one of the main collaborators of William the Conqueror, to his abbey in Lyre, was preceded by an edifice in wood whose reconstruction in mortar and wood (cemento et lapide) is referred to in c. 1015-1025.
Romanesque constructions only remain in the structure of the nave and transept (the side aisles of the choir have disappeared), and, above all, the central tower, which is square and robust, and seems to date back to the second half of the 11th century. It offers the same means of construction as the last span of the nave. The rest was probably built after the fire of 1138 which ravaged the church.
In this region which was not rich in supplies of good stone, they had recourse to a rather un-rewarding material to work, which was characteristic of constructions in this part of Normandy, “grison” (a sort of ferruginous conglomerate) whose use in particular explains the simplicity of the capitals of the cylindrical dressed piers in the nave, replaced by simple square tablets.

Bibliography

- Tréguier L., Excursion du vendredi 30 mai à Tillières, Breteuil, Condé et Chambray, Annuaire des Cinq départements de la Normandie, 1914, 80, p. 120-132
- Dictionnaire des églises de France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Suisse, IVB, Normandie, Paris, 1968, p. 24 (notice de M. Baudot)
- Musset L., Normandie romane, 2. Haute-Normandie, La Pierre-qui-Vire, 1974, p. 24-25
- Lannette Cl., L’église de Breteuil, Congrès archéologique de France, 138e session, 1980 [1983], p. 218-229
- Baylé M., Les origines et les premiers développements de la sculpture romane en Normandie, Art de Basse-Normandie, n°100 bis, 1992, p. 24, et n. 310