St. Médard Church, Creil

The Saint-Médard church is a Catholic parish church located in Creil, France. Built from the beginning of the thirteenth century on the site of an earlier church on the plan of a Greek cross, it was completed before the end of that same century. It was completed before the end of the same century. Having quickly become too small, it was extensively modified in the 14th and 15th centuries, with the choir being moved to the north-east, on the site of the former northern cross. This solution was the only way to enlarge the church, which was confined in a tight urban fabric, with the city wall almost abutting its walls to the northeast. The southern crossing and the transept crossing have served as the nave ever since. After the collapse of the choir vaults at the end of the Hundred Years' War, they were rebuilt at a lower level, but the old nave with its two aisles remains almost unchanged. Its north-east wall was however pierced to connect this part with a high and elegant chapel, added in the corner with the new choir at the end of the 15th century. The church then took its present form, but the 16th century saw the construction of a new bell tower to the southwest, completed only in the middle of the century in the Renaissance style, while the rest of the church is Gothic. Because of its unusually irregular plan, the exterior elevations reveal little of the structure of the interior space and appear somewhat chaotic. The interior of course shows a great diversity of supports and symmetries are rare, but the architecture is of a definite quality, and the finishing touches have been taken care of. The parts of the different building campaigns cohabit without too marked ruptures, and the interior is nevertheless harmonious. The church of Saint-Médard was classified as a historical monument by decree of October 20, 1920. It is in the center of the parish of Blessed Frederic Ozanam of Creillois-Centre.