Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Fitz-James

Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul Church is a Catholic parish church located in Fitz-James, France. It was probably founded by the abbey of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, which was collator of the parish, and maintained a priory there. It was united with the parish in 1767. The oldest parts of the present church date back to the late Romanesque period, to the 1140's. They are the base of the bell tower, which has an original ribbed vault; the exterior elevation of the next bay of the choir; and five buttresses. The Romanesque façade still existed in the mid-19th century. It was reinvented during a restoration in the second half of the 19th century, and is now an architectural pastiche. The cornice, the two windows on the north side of the nave, and the mid-12th-century bell tower were also sacrificed to a 19th-century update, and the interior of the Romanesque nave now has neo-Gothic vaults. The largest part of the church, however, dates from the flamboyant Gothic period, from the second quarter of the 16th century. These are the entire south nave, which splits the main nave; the last bays of the choir, with a canted apse; and the seigniorial chapel north of the choir, also with a canted apse. The flamboyant parts are stylistically very homogeneous, but their architecture is rather banal. The originality lies more in the plan. The eight eastern bays preserve four polychrome stained glass windows from the period of construction, and four fragments or sets of fragments of stained glass from the same period. Together with the capitals at the base of the bell tower, these stained glass windows are the church's main artistic asset. It has been registered as a historical monument since February 23, 1951. Today, Fitz-James is affiliated with the parish of the Heart of Christ of Clermont, and Sunday masses are celebrated there about once a month.