Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Goussainville

The Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church is a Catholic church located in Goussainville, France. It is at least the third church on the same site, built mostly between 1550 and 1564 in the Renaissance style, with particularly rich and elaborate ornamentation for a small rural village. The pointed arches and ribbed vaults are still reminiscent of Gothic architecture, while the capitals, entablatures and pilasters are of ancient inspiration. The plan is very simple, with only a central blind vessel accompanied by two aisles, as well as a small chapel, the whole ending with a flat chevet. The works were financed by the lord Antoine de Nicolaï, first president of the Court of Auditors, and were perhaps directed by the master mason Nicolas de Saint-Michel. A final campaign of work was necessary at the beginning of the 17th century to complete the reconstruction of the exterior walls. The present church still preserves elements of the late Romanesque and primitive Gothic church of the 12th century, in this case two bays of the south aisle with an old portal and the second floor of the bell tower, deeply reworked. Only the bases of the nave pillars and the lower parts of the outer walls of the first bays remain from the 13th century Gothic reconstruction. From the end of the 15th century, the belfry floor of the bell tower with a remarkable flamboyant decoration remains. The church was classified as a historical monument in 1914 and its crypt in 1940. It was disused for worship at the end of the twentieth century because of its poor condition, then largely restored between 2010 and 2013. Occasional use for worship resumed in late 2017.