St. Martin's Church, Moisselles

Saint-Martin Church is a Catholic parish church located in Attainville, France.

It succeeds a previous church whose dedication was celebrated only in 1529. But this church was in danger of ruin in 1570, and had to be replaced urgently. Although the parish did not have any savings, a loan made it possible to launch the work in 1572. The direction of the building site was entrusted to the master builder Nicolas de Saint-Michel de Luzarches, who adopted a simple plan without a transept and an elevation in the tradition of flamboyant Gothic churches. He designed a pleasant Renaissance-style decoration, in which he perfectly mastered the ornamental vocabulary. The work progressed very quickly. When the funds ran out in 1575, the building was not entirely finished. The consecration was nevertheless celebrated in September 1576, and the church was used for worship from that date on.

It is sober, elegant and luminous. Despite the repetition of the same motifs on all the supports of the nave and the aisles, monotony does not set in. The western facade, the belfry floor of the bell tower, most of the north aisle and the vaults were not built until later. Thus, the final completion does not take place until 1817. For all the additions after 1576, the spirit of the original architecture is fully respected, and the homogeneity of the whole is amazing. The church has been classified as a historical monument since 1912. It represents a remarkable example of Renaissance architecture in the Pays de France, and although it was not completed at the time of its consecration, it can be considered as one of the churches with the shortest construction period.