Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Villers-Saint-Paul

The Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul church is a Catholic parish church located in Villers-Saint-Paul, France. Like many medieval churches in the region, it combines a Romanesque nave from the 12th century with a Gothic choir from the 13th century, but the two very distinct parts have particularities that make the church unique as a whole. The position of the bell tower between the north cross and the choir is unusual for the region. The nave has a monumental Romanesque portal with multiple archivolts and, above all, cornices whose modillions are sculpted, as well as the intervals, with the most diverse motifs. Inside, the large arches opening onto the aisles are among the first in the department to be in tiers-point, and they fall on capitals of archaic sculpture, also with a multitude of motifs. The choir, which forms a homogeneous whole with the transept, is characterized by its plan, with crosses and side chapels of two successive bays each instead of one, and by the diversity of window types and the abundance of lighting. At the same time, it is a tall and slender building, where the architect tried to create a large empty space inside. The elegance of the building is not apparent from the outside, where the choir appears rather austere. Since its completion around 1225, the church of Villers-Saint-Paul has never been altered, and it has also been spared radical restorations, which gives it a rare authenticity. The building was classified as a historical monument by list of 1862, twenty-two years after the first classifications in France. It is affiliated with the parish of Tous les Saints du Creillois-Nord.