The best road cycling routes around Fresnay-Le-Comte

Of Romanesque origin, the church, surrounded by a cemetery, has a curious bell tower supported by machicolations and uprights of sandstone, making it one of the most unique in the region. Perhaps it was originally a bell gable, later augmented by a platform supported by these machicolations? In front of the entrance, a small building called a "caquetoire" (a small meeting place) allows the faithful to gather and converse. Inside the church, the furnishings date from the 18th and 19th centuries: a marble high altar and its gray-painted wooden altarpiece (18th century) – a painted wooden altarpiece of St. Joseph (late 18th or early 19th century) an altarpiece for the altar of the Virgin Mary (19th century) a baptismal font in red-veined marble (19th century) a waxed wooden pew (18th century) a waxed wooden choir stall upholstered in velvet paintings: the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Octave Hauser (1839) and the Annunciation (18th century) The stained-glass windows date from 1874. The church and the eclipse A bit of history: The parish, established in the 13th century, was part of the deanery of Courville. The church's patron saint, Luperche or Luperchius, gave his name to the village. We must go back to the 4th century to find the first trace of this saint: At that time, Dacius, governor of the part of Spain that included Catalonia, Aragon, and the Kingdom of Valencia, was one of the most cruel ministers of persecution. Incited by the emperors Diocletian and Maximilian, he had eighteen confessors of Jesus Christ executed in the city of Zaragoza. In their honor, the poet Prudentius wrote hymns, and among these confessors, a certain martyr named Luperche became the patron saint of our church.

The oldest document mentioning the Church of Saint-Martin in Fresnay-le-Comte is the charter of Renaud de Mouçon, Bishop of Chartres, confirming the possessions of the Abbey of Marmoutier, near Tours. This charter dates only from the last years of the 12th century, but the church's foundation may have already existed at that time. The building comprises two parts of roughly equal size and from different periods. The older part, roughly corresponding to the nave, is of a rather undefined style. The west portal, with its pointed arch devoid of any decoration, may date back to the 12th or 13th century, as may the first window of the nave, on the right. In the north wall, there is a small, walled-up doorway, whose lintel, adorned with an accolade, is no earlier than the 15th century, but the relieving arch above it appears older, perhaps from the 12th century. Half of the church, including almost the entire chancel, is from a more recent period and easily recognizable. The polygonal apse and the windows with their flamboyant tracery of late design indicate the very end of the 15th century. An inscription on one of the chancel's tie beams gives a precise date: In the year 1529, this chancel was completely rebuilt. The statue of the Virgin Mary was baptized during the Mass of October 30, 2021, by Father Pierre Paul. This statue, moved from the Chapel of the Three Marys in Mignières, was restored by Mr. Martial Moulin, a sculptor from Chartres.

The church, dedicated to Saint Denis, is located in the diocese of Chartres. It was under the jurisdiction of the Benedictine abbess of Saint-Avit in Châteaudun. It comprises two distinctly contrasting parts: a low Romanesque nave, 17 meters wide by 8.5 meters long, and a taller Gothic chancel, 14 meters wide by 10 meters long. The western doorway, with its semicircular arch, is framed by columns whose bases are molded with two tori and whose capitals are adorned with leaves ending in volutes. The tympanum is plain, surrounded by a molded archivolt, and externally highlighted by an archivolt decorated with a sawtooth pattern, similar to that of the nearby church of Saint-Maur-sur-le-Loir. The western gable, framed by flat buttresses, is pierced above this doorway only by a small semicircular window. The nave's side walls are reinforced with buttresses. The north buttress is blank, while the south one has three windows, two of which, long and narrow, may be original; the third was likely widened later. A side door was added on this side in the 14th century. The chancel, with its flat apse, is topped by a high gable whose sloping sides are decorated with crockets. The central window with flamboyant tracery was walled up to accommodate the large altarpiece. The north wall is blank; only two flamboyant windows with triple lancets illuminate this part of the building on the south side. The structure is punctuated by flat buttresses with offsets. A stone inscription indicates the date of its construction: 1550. Inside, the nave and chancel are not vaulted in stone, as the large number of buttresses might suggest from the outside. They are covered with panelled wooden vaults. In the center of the nave, four wooden pillars and a hexagonal framework support the slate spire that crowns the building. Among the interesting furnishings are a 17th- or 18th-century baptismal font, a painting depicting the Education of the Virgin, a pulpit, a churchwarden's pew, choir stalls, Restoration-era choir paneling, and, most notably, a magnificent and imposing altarpiece from the church of Saint-Germain-les-Alluyes, from where it was transferred in 1812. It is the work of Charles Roscoët, who also worked at the churches of Alluyes and Moriers. The Vitray altarpiece dates from 1669; its central panel is framed by double twisted columns adorned with vine leaves and surmounted by a Baroque pediment in the center of which is a statue of a bishop saint (Saint Germain) between reclining figures. The two wings of the altarpiece, right and left, are topped with twisted columns and adorned with shell-shaped niches intended to hold statues. In 2005, the French Heritage Society (Sauvegarde de l’Art français) awarded a grant of €6,500 for the restoration of the gable, the belfry, and the bell tower roof, as well as the installation of a lightning rod.

This church in Meslay-Le-Vidame, whose architecture reflects the formal language of antiquity, was dedicated to the patron saint of Saint Etienne. He was one of the first seven deacons of the original Jerusalem church and, according to the biblical accounts in the New Testament, the first martyr (martyr) of early Christianity. The church commemorates his death on Boxing Day, December 26th. As the Acts of the Apostles recounts: When Stephen recounted his vision of the open heavens, "And he, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Chapter 7, Verse 55), the people were so outraged that they drove him out of the city and stoned him.

Unfortunately, the church was not accessible when I visited (mid-September 2024). You could only look in through a gate and the dance of death depictions on the left side were not really visible. In front of them were transparencies with skeleton drawings. Maybe those were the depictions...

Historically, our small medieval Romanesque church, dedicated to Saint Silvanus, was an integral part of a lordship. We can, still today, guess the vestiges of the seigniorial coat of arms on the liter (the banner) located just below the windows on the north face. Located near the old castle moat, the cemetery flanked it, on the north side in place of the current car park and the multi-purpose room, on the south side at the level of the green space currently planted with lime trees. Originally only the central building existed and the bell tower topped it in its center. This is the reason why at the beginning of the 1980s, the framework began to collapse, weakened by the weight and the marks of time left by the old bell tower. This renovation proved, if necessary, through the design of the framework, the existence of the central bell tower. The time when the bell tower was moved off-center is at the end of the 16th century, beginning of the 17th century. Concerning the creation of the sacristy and the side chapels, the departmental archives hold a plan of the church, dated August 19, 1853 which clearly indicates the existence of the sacristy and only the north chapel, the construction of the South chapel was therefore not concomitant. In the masonry, the small Romanesque windows can still be seen, the only one remaining, unwalled, opens to the east and still today offers a light entrance into the apse. Around the church we notice two types of buttresses, the first, the narrower ones date from the creation of the building, the more massive ones date from the 18th century, placed as reinforcements Neo-classicism at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century left its mark on this building. Outside, as we have seen, by the addition of the sacristy as well as the small side chapels now forming a transept.

Thivars is mentioned in 966 in the Chartres cartulary. In the 12th century, the church became the property of Josaphat Abbey. The current church was built in the 16th century: a date of 1545 is engraved on a cherub in the turret. It is a very high construction but very irregular, this comes from the fact that it belongs to several eras: ogival style in the windows, the entrance door is Romanesque (it may be the door of the first Romanesque church) . The choir was formerly separated from the nave by an iron grille which disappeared during the French Revolution. The ceiling has pretty paneling dating from 1645. The two side altars are dedicated: one to Notre Dame des Victoires and the other to Saint Joseph. Among the furniture we can note an interesting painting which represents Our Lord pronouncing on a coin. In 1940, two bombs fell less than 30 m from the church, destroying the stained glass windows on the south side which were replaced by grisailles in 1987. Three pretty stained glass windows light up this church: Nativity stained glass window installed by Mr Campin in 1955 Stained glass windows of the village's patron saints, Saint Radegonde and Saint Hilaire, installed in 1900 and 1987 respectively.

Beautiful bay window with spiral staircase in it; unfortunately not available to visit