The Church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois

Dedicated to Saint-Germain d’Auxerre, the beginning of the construction of this beautiful gothic church took place at the beginning of the 13th century. Throughout the Hundred Years War, the church was damaged during the siege of 1428 by the English from Salisbury. Rebuilt and completed with lateral chapels, it suffered ransacking again during the Religious Wars: the roofs were burned, the stained-glass windows and the bell towers’ arrows were destroyed, and the bells were melted to use them as cannonballs…
It was refurbished and enlarged in the 17th century with the Virgin’s chapel forming the church’s apse. During the French Revolution, the edifice was closed and plundered. Confiscated as a national property, it became a “Temple of the victorious Reason” and then was used as a jail. In 1795, the church regained its worship place function at the insistent request of the inhabitants. In the 19th century, the edifice was bad maintained and threatened to crumble. The restoration was carried out in less than ten years.