Église Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul is the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of the village of

Neuwiller-lès-Saverne Neuwiller-lès-Saverne (, literally ''Neuwiller near Saverne''; german: Neuweiler; gsw-FR, Neiwiller) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Landmarks The handsome 1873 synagogue survived the war. See al ...

, in the

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of France. Formerly the church of a rich

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

founded in 726, it is surrounded by buildings and ruins that had once belonged to the same

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

. Thanks to its Romanesque parts, the church is a stage on the Romanesque Road of Alsace. It is classified as a

Monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual, ...

since 1840, making it a part of the very first list of such heritage buildings.

Architecture

The church's exterior architecture is strikingly clear-cut, insofar as its visible parts are growing younger from East to West, or older from West to East. The purely Romanesque superposed

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

s behind the

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

date from the 11th century; the choir itself, the transept and the easternmost

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

date from the late 12th and early 13th century and reflect a transitional style between Romanesque and Gothic architecture; the rest of the nave was rebuilt later in the 13th century, in a sober but well defined Gothic style; while the facade with its

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

tower was rebuilt between 1768 and 1773 in the

Louis Quinze The Louis XV style or ''Louis Quinze'' (, ) is a style of architecture and decorative arts which appeared during the reign of Louis XV. From 1710 until about 1730, a period known as the Régence, it was largely an extension of the Louis XIV style ...

style. The crossing tower was modified by architect

Émile Boeswillwald Émile Boeswillwald (2 February 1815 – 20 March 1896) was a French architect. He succeeded Prosper Mérimée as Inspector General of Historic Monuments and collaborated with Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Life Emile Boeswillwald born in Strasbourg o ...

during a restoration campaign in the years 1852–1858. Interestingly, the former church of the nearby Marmoutier Abbey has an identical architectural history, but in reverse: the western part is Romanesque, the nave is Gothic and the choir was rebuilt in the 18th century. Each church also has a

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

that is even older than the surfacing parts (in Neuwiller's case, it dates from the 9th century). Inside, the choir is separated from the rear chapels by a wall that appears to shorten the visible space: while the whole building's length is , the total combined length of nave, transept and choir is only .

Description

The church holds the relics of Saint Adelphus since the first half of the 9th century. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, these relics had become so popular with pilgrims that the Benedictines built a second church nearby (1190–1225, now the village's Protestant church) specially to serve as a shrine, so as to remain undisturbed in their own sanctuary. The

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including ''wikt:phylactery, phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it i ...

of Saint Adelphus was later moved back into Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul in the 19th century, after the dissolution of the abbey following the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. Among the many works of art inside the former abbey church, the four, late 15th or early 16th-century

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

depicting the life and the miracles of Adelphus, on display in the upper of the superposed Romanesque chapels (dedicated to

Saint Sebastian Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Dioclet ...

), are perhaps the most notable. A strikingly gory scene depicts a knight being forced by divine wrath to devour his own hand after having tried to break the saint's

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

. The 12th-century

baptismal fonts A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). T ...

, the 14th-century statue of the Virgin and Child, the 1478 Entombment of Christ, and the 18th-century carved choir stalls are also especially noteworthy. All these objects are classified as Monuments historiques.

Gallery

Neuwiller StPierre-Paul 01.JPG, Rear of the church Neuwiller StPierre-Paul 099.JPG, Neoclassical facade and porch tower Neuwiller StPierre-Paul 229.JPG, Upper Romanesque chapel with

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

and tapestry Neuwiller StPierre-Paul 34.JPG, Gothic nave with pulpit and pipe organ Neuwiller StPierre-Paul 82.JPG, 12th-century baptismal fonts Neuwiller StPierre-Paul 28.JPG, 18th-century choir stalls Neuwiller StPierre-Paul 113.JPG, Église Saint-Adelphe, the secondary church, seen from Église Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul

References

External links

Restoration of the church (ongoing)
, 24 June 2016
Restoration of the church (ongoing)

Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace ''Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace'', commonly known as ''DNA'', is a regional daily French newspaper covering the Alsace region. History and profile ''DNA'' was created in November 1877 as ''Neueste Nachrichten'' by German Heinrich Ludwig Kays ...

, 16 July 2016
Restoration of the church (finished)
Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, 22 June 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Neuwiller-les-Saverne Monasteries in France Monuments historiques of Bas-Rhin Romanesque architecture in France Gothic architecture in France Pilgrimage churches Roman Catholic churches in France Neoclassical church buildings in France