Saint Stephen's Church

The Saint-Etienne church is a Catholic parish church located in Fosses, France. It was built during two construction campaigns, the first of which between 1170 and 1200 focused on the choir, the north cross, the north absidiole, the nave and the two aisles. The latter were however rebuilt in the 16th century. The southern crosspiece and the chapel of the Virgin were added during the second campaign around 1230 / 1240, and thus differ from their northern counterparts. The ensemble is in the early Gothic style, as indicated by the remarkable bell tower and the sculpture of the capitals, which are beautifully crafted and represent in a rather naturalistic way some elements of the local flora. At the same time, one cannot deny the persistent influence of Romanesque architecture, which can be seen in the semicircular shape of the windows from the first campaign, and in the hemicycle plan of the choir, which the church of Fosses shares with some other Gothic churches from the same period. The northern apsidal chapel is of archaic design, and its architecture is less advanced than that of its counterpart in the church of Luzarches, which is nevertheless fifty years older. The nave belongs to a protogothic type characterized by high windows aligned above the pillars of the large arches, designed not to be vaulted. However, a change in design occurred when the south wall was built, and the windows are now located above the arcades, which are therefore of lower height; lateral buttresses indicate that the option of an ogival vault was chosen. This was never realized, and the church is indeed built economically, with very limited use of ashlar and a restriction of ornamentation to the strict minimum. The architectural sobriety had been compensated by wall paintings, of which only vestiges remain, eloquent enough to allow a reconstitution. Shortly before the middle of the 13th century, the nave was endowed with a new western portal, the layout of which shows an ambition not seen elsewhere in the church. Classified as a historical monument by decree of March 18, 1913, it is the only village church of essentially primitive Gothic style in the entire eastern Val-d'Oise, and as such is a precious witness to history. Now well restored, it has however been ousted from the parish mass calendar, and Saint-Etienne church plays almost no role in local religious life.