Saint-Sulpice Church

The Saint-Sulpice church is a Catholic parish church located in Béthancourt-en-Valois, Oise, France. It was given to the abbey of Morienval in the middle of the 12th century. The Romanesque church that existed at that time was then almost entirely rebuilt in two stages, leaving only the bell tower from the beginning of the 12th century. In the first stage, a long basilica nave was built, which was not intended to be vaulted. In a second phase, towards the end of the 12th century and at the beginning of the following century, the nave was fitted with a western portal decorated with a particularly large number of columns with capitals, and a new two-bay choir was built to the east. Vaulted with ogives, unlike the nave, it is accompanied by two side aisles, and ends with a flat chevet, whose window with a radiating gothic network was fitted afterwards. In the choir, which is of a rather sober construction, one notices in particular the particular arrangement of the supports according to the Chartrain system, which is not used elsewhere in the Valois. During the modern period, the aisles were rebuilt: the northern one during the first half of the 16th century, and the southern one during the following century. The church of Saint-Sulpice is listed as a historical monument by decree of February 22, 1949, and has benefited from a restoration at the end of the twentieth century. Today it is affiliated to the parish of the Automne valley, whose main place of worship is the church of Saint-Pierre de Verberie, and Sunday masses are celebrated there every two months, generally on Sundays at 9:00 am.