St. Peter's Church, Cergy

The Saint-Pierre church is a Catholic parish church located in Puiseux-Pontoise, France. It was founded before the 12th century, and its original nave, very simple and low, remained until 1895. Thanks to the generosity of the Thomassin family, it was replaced by a neo-Gothic nave with aisles and chapels, which was blessed in 1898. At least its central nave imitates the Gothic style of the first half of the reign of St. Louis, which is that of the transept of the 1230's. Its cross aisles were designed from the outset to connect with the aisles, but communicated with the nave only by temporary passages. By opening widely onto the transept, the neo-Gothic construction finally highlights the older parts of the church, and forms with them an almost homogeneous space. Without touching the ancient capital columns, the transept crossing and the northern crosspiece were revamped in the flamboyant period, at the beginning of the 16th century, and the delicate networks of the windows of the crosspieces date from this period, as well as the belfry that rises above the transept crossing. Its style is rather insipid compared to most other bell towers in the French Vexin. The oldest part of the church is the small rectangular choir with a flat chevet. Extremely austere on the outside, it is nevertheless distinguished by a beautiful small six-pointed vault of the years 1190 / 1210, which constitutes an archaeological curiosity: this type of vault is usually reserved for large churches. The choir, the transept and the bell tower have been registered as historical monuments since 1966. Puiseux-en-France is now affiliated with the parish of Cergy, and masses are celebrated in the church of Saint-Pierre only on major religious holidays, at 9:30 am.