The best traffic-free bike rides around Orrouer

very nice pond to rest

The Saint-Just-et-Sainte-Anne church of Fresnay-le-Gilmert is a religious monument located in the town of the same name, in the Centre-Val de Loire region. The available data does not specify its period of construction or its architectural evolution, but its existence testifies to a local heritage rooted in the rural landscape. Churches of this type, often at the heart of villages, played a central role in community life. They served as a place of worship, gathering, and identity marker for the inhabitants. In Centre-Val de Loire, as elsewhere in France, these buildings also reflected the religious and social practices of successive eras, although the specific details for Fresnay-le-Gilmert are not documented here.

The main nave, ending in a semicircular apse, is preceded by a timber-framed porch and opens to the north onto a chapel through a wide archway. The timber-framed bell tower, clearly from the same period as the 17th-century wainscoting, rests on a base spanning the nave. A second nave is covered with quadripartite masonry vaults from different periods. Of a dressed stone tower, only the spiral staircase and the first level remain, built between the 11th and 13th centuries. The side aisle was built in the 14th century and enlarged in the 16th. 1660: Supposed collapse of the tower attached to the nave, of which only the first level remains. 1679: Paneling on the nave and probable construction of the small timber-framed spire. 19th century: Supposed construction of the timber-framed chapel. The church was under the jurisdiction of the chapter of Notre-Dame de Chartres (the chapter's name can be seen on the lock of the small door on the right and is painted on the walls of the capital with stars and the date 1733 L.M.M.P.).

Of Romanesque origin, the church, surrounded by a cemetery, has a curious bell tower supported by machicolations and uprights of sandstone, making it one of the most unique in the region. Perhaps it was originally a bell gable, later augmented by a platform supported by these machicolations? In front of the entrance, a small building called a "caquetoire" (a small meeting place) allows the faithful to gather and converse. Inside the church, the furnishings date from the 18th and 19th centuries: a marble high altar and its gray-painted wooden altarpiece (18th century) – a painted wooden altarpiece of St. Joseph (late 18th or early 19th century) an altarpiece for the altar of the Virgin Mary (19th century) a baptismal font in red-veined marble (19th century) a waxed wooden pew (18th century) a waxed wooden choir stall upholstered in velvet paintings: the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Octave Hauser (1839) and the Annunciation (18th century) The stained-glass windows date from 1874. The church and the eclipse A bit of history: The parish, established in the 13th century, was part of the deanery of Courville. The church's patron saint, Luperche or Luperchius, gave his name to the village. We must go back to the 4th century to find the first trace of this saint: At that time, Dacius, governor of the part of Spain that included Catalonia, Aragon, and the Kingdom of Valencia, was one of the most cruel ministers of persecution. Incited by the emperors Diocletian and Maximilian, he had eighteen confessors of Jesus Christ executed in the city of Zaragoza. In their honor, the poet Prudentius wrote hymns, and among these confessors, a certain martyr named Luperche became the patron saint of our church.

Unfortunately, the church was not accessible when I visited (mid-September 2024). You could only look in through a gate and the dance of death depictions on the left side were not really visible. In front of them were transparencies with skeleton drawings. Maybe those were the depictions...

Historically, our small medieval Romanesque church, dedicated to Saint Silvanus, was an integral part of a lordship. We can, still today, guess the vestiges of the seigniorial coat of arms on the liter (the banner) located just below the windows on the north face. Located near the old castle moat, the cemetery flanked it, on the north side in place of the current car park and the multi-purpose room, on the south side at the level of the green space currently planted with lime trees. Originally only the central building existed and the bell tower topped it in its center. This is the reason why at the beginning of the 1980s, the framework began to collapse, weakened by the weight and the marks of time left by the old bell tower. This renovation proved, if necessary, through the design of the framework, the existence of the central bell tower. The time when the bell tower was moved off-center is at the end of the 16th century, beginning of the 17th century. Concerning the creation of the sacristy and the side chapels, the departmental archives hold a plan of the church, dated August 19, 1853 which clearly indicates the existence of the sacristy and only the north chapel, the construction of the South chapel was therefore not concomitant. In the masonry, the small Romanesque windows can still be seen, the only one remaining, unwalled, opens to the east and still today offers a light entrance into the apse. Around the church we notice two types of buttresses, the first, the narrower ones date from the creation of the building, the more massive ones date from the 18th century, placed as reinforcements Neo-classicism at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century left its mark on this building. Outside, as we have seen, by the addition of the sacristy as well as the small side chapels now forming a transept.

Very beautiful church and the public toilets next to it are perfect, even for filling water bottles too large for the classic sinks.

Composed of a Romanesque nave with flat buttresses placed symmetrically on each side (typical of the end of the 11th century or the first half of the 12th century), it was completely remodeled in the 16th century and the end of the 20th century. The bays of the nave are from the 15th century, in flamboyant Gothic style, as is the rose window. The span of the bell tower and the choir, with ribbed vaults, date from the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century. As early as the 16th century, the bell tower had a clock, quite rare and expensive for the time. The pillars of the central bay are richly molded and crowned with thin bands of foliage serving as capitals. The windows are decorated with flamboyant tracery of varied designs. The Romanesque portal was also remodeled in the 16th century. The powerful central bell tower with buttresses [formerly had three bells named PIC DAN JON. There will only be one left after the Revolution, the other two having been melted down to make cannons and ammunition.