St. Martin's Church

The Saint-Martin church is a Catholic parish church located in Commeny, in the Val-d'Oise. Its construction began a few decades after the erection of Commeny as a parish in 1161. At the beginning of the XIIIth century, this primitive gothic style building is completed, and comprises a nave of four bays with two aisles, a transept with a central bell tower, and a small choir with a flat chevet. During the Hundred Years' War, the church was damaged, and the last bays of the aisles and the transept's crosses were rebuilt at the beginning of the 16th century, in the flamboyant gothic style. Later, in 1568, the nave and its side aisles were not only vaulted in a somewhat rustic Renaissance style, but the large arcades on the south side and the walls of the side aisles were completely rebuilt. From then on, only the large northern arches, the transept crossing, the bell tower and the choir remained from the first parish church. Then, the reinforcement of the bell tower's piers, followed by the demolition of the bell tower in 1832 and a rather radical restoration considerably reduce the architectural interest of the building. A new bell tower was however built in 1833, and the furniture includes remarkable elements, including the altarpiece of the high altar in polychrome stone. The church was registered as a historical monument by decree of June 16, 1926. Today it is affiliated to the parish of Avernes et Marines, and Sunday masses are celebrated there irregularly, twice a year.