St. Andrew's Church

The Saint-André church is a Catholic parish church located in Moussy, France. It is one of the most archaic Romanesque churches in the French Vexin, and one of the few that were not built with a single vessel, and whose original transept has been preserved. Its two crosses are equipped with small apses. The vaulting is based on the three main techniques used in the Romanesque period: the cross vault for the transept crossing; the barrel vault for the crossbeams and the apses; and the barrel vault for the apse. The church is listed as a historical monument by decree of June 16, 1926. The unique nave, simply covered with a ceiling, and the Renaissance bell tower-porch from the third quarter of the 16th century were destroyed by the Allied bombings in 1944, which targeted the German V1s hidden in the underground quarries of Nucourt. Only the Renaissance portal and the southern wall at the base of the bell tower remain. The church then remained abandoned for about fifteen years. The restoration of the eastern parts, which remained standing, and the construction of a new nave began towards the end of the 1950s, and the church was consecrated once again on May 7, 1964 by Mgr Alexandre Renard, Bishop of Versailles. The remains of the Renaissance tower have been left as a witness to the past. Moussy is now affiliated with the parish of Avernes et Marines, and the church of Saint-André hosts early Sunday masses irregularly, about three times a year.