A village church in Burgundy (2023)
Bois-Sainte-Marie may be a very quiet village today, but from around Year 1000 and throughout the Middle Ages, it was a busy market town on the road linking Paray-le-Monial to Cluny. Enclosed in a sheet wall, it was the seat of an archpriesthood dependent on the cathedral of Autun. There was a granary and a salt store, judicial authorities and even a mint.
The parish church was built with significant input from Lombard architects and masons, at least as far as the apse and chancel are concerned, as the decorative
bandes lombardes indicate. Construction probably began around 1025, as the eastern part of the church was completed by 1050, and it is quite large. Quite archaic as well, it is the only church in the the whole of Burgundy that features an ambulatory without any radiating chapels: the ambulatory formula was quite in its infancy back then. Ambulatories are often associated with pilgrimage churches, as they allow for the circulation of pilgrims around the relics, while the
opus Dei is still being carried out in the chancel. However, in the case of Bois-Sainte-Marie, I could find no claims regarding possession of any relics at any point in time. Maybe they intended to procure some and didn’t succeed? Or maybe the concept of ambulatory was only being tested here for the first time, without any particular intent to obtain relics?
The rest of the church, dedicated to Notre-Dame de la Nativité, was built later, towards the end of the 11th century. It is very large as well (for a village church, that is), and abundantly decorated with a collection of extremely interesting historied capitals.
The church was listed as a Historic Landmark
(“Monument historique”) in 1862.
Nikon Z7 II, Nikkor 19mm, ƒ/4 PC-E tilt-shift lens, manual focus, FTZ II adapter. Gitzo tripod, Benro geared head. Natural light.