Saint Sauveur Church of Germigny-des-Prés

This is one of the very few edifices that have survived from the Carolingian period. Private oratory for the villa of Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans, Abbot of Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire) and advisor to Charlemagne, it was conceived, according to tradition, in imitation of Aachen’s palatine chapel and undoubtedly erected in the beginning of the 9th century (the year 806 is most often cited, although there is no firm basis for this). Of the two inscriptions engraved on the eastern imposts supporting the tower, only that on the south, Tertio nonas januarias dedicatio hujus ecclesiae (3 January, inscription of this church), is authentic. The inscription on the north impost which gives the date of 806 is a counterfeit, dating from the 19th century. With only one nave in the eleventh century, the church became priory church of Fleury in 1168 and later the parish church.  

Despite what is now considered a very aggressive restoration and practically a reconstruction, carried out between 1868 and 1871 by the architect of Historical Monuments, Juste Lische, its general structure was respected. The main thrust of the project was to reconstitute—what turned out to be a very primitive rendering of—its original style. Archaeological digs carried out in 1932, however, helped to rectify this in piecing together the original structure that had disappeared. The edifice, built on a square plan with a central core and aisles, has a semicircular apse on each side, making for an overall cruciform plan. The eastern apse, with its horseshoe-shaped plan, was primitively accosted by two apsidal chapels, destroyed during the restoration process. The plans dating from 1841 prove that, already in the 19th century, they appeared much altered. The western apse, which disappeared very early on, must have served as a portal.

In terms of its elevation plan, its centrality is marked by a square tower lantern, set up on four pillars at each corner of the central core. This tower, which now has two levels, used to have a third before being restored, which, it would seem, once served during the Romanesque period as a bell tower.  The cruciform structure is accentuated by the compartmentalisation of the aisles, the central bays comprising, along the axis of the apses, barrel vaults which are much higher in elevation than the groin vaults of the corner bays.  

While the stone walls are locked between two ornamentations of small stones, the supports and arches are made of medium and large cut stone. Only two imposts carrying inscriptions were put back in place—the partial remains of a third, decorated with tracery, remains in Orléans, at the Historical and Archaeological Museum of Orléanais, in addition to a few small classical columns and several capitals of a style from late-antiquity.

The original structure of the construction, its elaborate ornamentation and the eminent character and origin of its patron have led some art historians to point to the most distant sources. And while a strong Spanish influence seems plausible (Theodulf having Visigoth origins), an important comparison can be made with San Pedro de la Nave (Zamora, Spain) from the late seventh century (floor plan, mode of construction: walls made with small quarry stones, supports bonded with cut stone, vaults). And then there is the parentage with the proto-Byzantine art of Italy: the floor plan in Germigny in the form of a Greek cross as in the mausoleum known as the Galla Placidia (around 425). And lastly, because of its elaborate floor plan, the very doubtful hypothesis of Armenian influences. It appears that here, as in Aachen, we are in the presence of a high art that draws from classical construction techniques while showing great sensibility to both Mediterranean and oriental influences. This tendency to draw from multiple sources is surely what characterises the approach of the Carolingian elites in their efforts to give birth to architecture of great prestige.