Manéglise (canton of Montivilliers, Seine-Maritime) Church of St Germain

    This fine church dating from the 11th and 12th centuries, which was a dependency of the priory of Longueville, consists of a nave flanked by aisles, a bay topped by a tower and a choir with a flat east end. The nave, which was built in the 12th century, has a timber-framed roof and an elevation on two levels. Piers of rounded cross-section support the large arches of the arcades, conveying both robustness and elegance; they have capitals decorated with a great variety of scallops. The second level consists of blind arcades in the middle of which are small round-headed windows.

The bay supporting the central tower and the choir are undoubtedly earlier than the nave. Originally they had a timber-framed roof, but they soon received rib vaults. That above the bay under the tower, cuts through, on the south side, a mural painting dating from the 12th century. It has just recently been discovered, and represents the sleeping Virgin, the Apostles and St Thomas in the presence of Christ. An aisle, which communicates with the nave aisle, was added in the mid-16th century on the south side of the choir. On the outside the focus of attention is the central tower, which is square in plan and squat. This is decorated with a row of blind openings which alternate with twin openings set below a relieving arch. The east façade is simple but well structured: two flat buttresses, positioned on the axis of the nave arcades, flank the doorway which has a pointed arch.

Henry Decaëns

Bibliography

- Carment-Lanfry, A.-M. "les églises romanes dans les anciens archidiaconés du Grand Caux et du Petit Caux au diocèse de Rouen : doyenné de Saint-Romain de Colbosc : Manéglise." - Revue des Sociétés savantes de Haute-Normandie, n° 40, quatrième trimestre 1965, Archéologie (n° 10), p. 23-29 : ill
- Musset, Lucien. : Normandie romane, tome II, p. 203-205 : ill. – Zodiaque, Sainte-Marie de la Pierre-qui-Vire, 1974