commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.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, ...
in northern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
Val-de-Marne
Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a pop ...
) and
Combs-la-Ville
Combs-la-Ville () is a commune in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located from the center of Paris, in the " new town" of Sénart, created in the 1970s.
...
(
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne () is a Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne (river), Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square ...
) 25 km from the center of
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.
Inhabitants of Varennes-Jarcy are known as ''Varennois''.
bishop of Bourges
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bourges (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Bituricensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Bourges'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The Archdiocese comprises the departements of Ch ...
, the church was built at the end of the 13th century, between 1269 and 1282. It is a large chapel with
ogival
An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture and woodworking.
Etymology
The earliest use of the word ''ogive'' is found in the 13th c ...
vault, comprising 4 tumulary stones (tombs), which have been classified historic buildings since February 1915. They are indicated on the left and on the right entry by 2 commemorative plates. They are ''tombs seigneuriales'':
: On the left: Those of Frémin de la Sangle, died in 1492, and that of Françoise de Feugeras, his widow, who owned the properties of Varennes and Périgny.
:On the right: Those of Louis de la Sangle going back to 1549, and that of his mother, the stones have become illegible today.
The church shelters also a superb white marble statue of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...
, dated from the end of the 17th century and known under the name of ''MATER Dolorosa''. It comes from the Abbaye de Jarcy, from where it was saved during 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 ...
and was installed there between 1792 and 1804, at the same time as the altar and the wooden sculpture of
Saint Roch
Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327, also called Rock in English, is a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he is especially invoked a ...
, dating from the 16th century.
Many alterations took place over the strands of time, as the history testifies, to some to the
stained glass window
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
s. The stained glass windows of were 13th century were installed in the abbey church during work carried out about 1652, and were reused in the church of the commune of Jarcy. In 1882, significant repairs were necessary and the stained glass was then put on sale. Monsieur Bosquillon, châtelain de Jarcy, become purchaser for 450
franc
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (Style of the French sovereign, King of the Franks) used on early France, ...
s in the money of the day, but finally it was the state which, 3 years later, bought them for the sum of 600 francs, on behalf of the museum of Decorative Arts. They represent:
:the
tree of Jesse
The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, shown in a branching tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. It is the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a ge ...
, dating back to 1215-1220
:the miracle of Saint Martin,
Bishop of Tours
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tours (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Turonensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Tours'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The archdiocese has roots that go back to the 3rd cent ...
, dating back to 1230-1240
These two works formed the basis of a museum of the stained glass, before being stored within the
Musée de Cluny
The Musée de Cluny ("Cluny Museum", ), also known as Musée national du Moyen Âge – Thermes et hôtel de Cluny ("National Museum of the Middle Ages – Cluny thermal baths and mansion"), is a museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, Fr ...
. According to the statements of the Easter painter and glass maker, having restored these stained glasses in 1741, "the glare of the colors recalls the large canopies of the
cathedral of Chartres
Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres), is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France, about southwest of Paris, and is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Mostly con ...
, and the Gothic paintings are like those of the
Sainte-Chapelle
The Sainte-Chapelle (; en, Holy Chapel) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France.
Co ...
in Paris".
With the
revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
, after an inventory of all the church (ornamentation, pieces of furniture) and a financial statement of the Factory, all will be wasted with the profit of the commune and the church will be transformed into "Temple de la raison". One even projected, if time allowed it, to cut down the cross of the bell-tower on December 25, 1793!
The bell dates back to 1781 and failed, like many others, being melted in 1867. Lastly, to release the village square, the old cemetery located around the church, was separated from the village in 1876: The first burial took place in 1886. On right-hand side of the entry, a stele commemorates old Varennois (inhabitants of Varenne) buried in the first cemetery since the 16th century. At the bottom is the mausoleum of the family Bosquillon de Jarcy, owner of the Domaine de Jarcy. Remainders partial of the Abbaye Royale de Jarcy.
See also
*
Communes of the Essonne department
The following is a list of the 194 communes of the Essonne department of France.
The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2020):Philippe Curtat: ''Le village de Varennes et L'abbaye royale de Jarcy'', literally ''The village of Varennes and the royal abbey of Jarcy''