St. Martin's Church

The church of Saint-Martin is a Catholic parish church located in Lierville, Oise, France. Its single unvaulted nave dates back to the end of the 11th century, and received a new richly decorated portal in the second quarter of the 12th century. It was also at this time that a bell tower was added to the south of the choir. It is one of the five octagonal Romanesque bell towers of the French Vexin. During the second half of the XIIth century, a gothic choir of two bays with a flat chevet replaced the primitive roman sanctuary. Equipped with a window with a late radiating filling when a chapel was added to the south, in the angle with the bell tower, during the 14th century, its true period is no longer visible from the outside, especially since a collateral also flanks it to the north. Added later than its southern counterpart, probably during the Hundred Years' War, it was not vaulted until the 15th century, and its vaults clearly display the flamboyant Gothic style. It was also during the flamboyant period, in the second quarter of the 16th century, that the nave was equipped with a five-bay aisle to the north, and that the vaulting of the nave was planned, which finally came to nothing. For the rare shape of its pillars and its interesting culs-de-lampe receiving the vaults, this aisle represents without any doubt the most remarkable element inside the church, but the base of the bell tower is also interesting for its Romanesque ribbed vault, and the south side chapel, for representing one of the rare testimonies of the 14th century architecture in the Vexin. The choir seems less successful, because its large arcades are frustrated, practically without molding and without columns with capitals. It is nevertheless well preserved. The church of Saint-Martin was registered as a historical monument by decree of April 30, 1969. It is now affiliated with the parish of Saint-François-d'Assise in Chaumont-en-Vexin, which suspended the celebration of Sunday masses in 2018.