L'église et la Tour de Trèves - The church and the keep of Treves
Après la visite de Cunault, c'est Mathilde qui nous présentait la Tour et l'Eglise de Trèves. Voici sa visite en anglais, avec le lexique français en fin de page... Enjoy it !
First of all, I will introduce you the keep of Treves, also known as the Tower of Treves. This keep is all that remains of a large 15th century castle. The castle itself was built in the 11th century, rebuilt in the 15th century with the keep and destroyed in the 18th century. This keep has a height of 50m and was built by Robert Le Maçon, Lord of Treves and chancellor of Charles the 7th, king of France. It has a very particular form due to the fact that a circular tower and a square tower were put side by side.
Now, we will go at St Aubin Church. It was built in 1106 thanks to the Lords of Treves. The bell tower was added in the 18th century. In the 15th century, the sidewalls
were reinforced and the nave was covered by a (wooden) round framework. The church was abandoned and was in a bad condition and was restored in the middle of the 19th century by His Eminence Maupoint of Chenehutte.
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OUTSIDE:
The façade, very simple is decorated of 3 arches between 2 corner buttresses. The door with its semi-circular arch is decorated of little saw teeth. There are big archways with pointed arches which seem to have been opened in the 13th century in order to give access to lateral galleries destroyed so we can’t see it anymore nowadays. We still can see marks of little windows of the 19th century. The bell tower is simple and massive with an arrow of tuffeau of the 15th century.
INSIDE:
The walls of the only nave are decorated by big archways with pointed arches on columns. At the transept crossing, a beautiful vault on a squinch is the beginning of a square tower. The base tower of the bell tower in front of the gate, on the right is decorated by a semi-circular arch sculpted with the poitevin style which make a contrast with the simple walls. You can also see the porphyre holy water shoup decorated with 4 heads with a human one who has a roman beard. It was here that were the baptismal waters.
You must also notice this big tabernacle, which was made at the end of the 15th century.
To finish you can see the recumbent figure of Robert Le Maçon who died on the 2nd of January 1443.
LEXIQUE: => To put side by side : accoler => Bell tower : clocher => Framework : charpente => Buttress : contrefort => Arrow : flèche => Archways : arcade => Vault on squinch : voûte sur trompe => Holy water shoup : bénitier