Église Saint-Sulpice de Saint-Sulpice-de-Favières, Gothic church in Saint-Sulpice-de-Favières, France.
The Église Saint-Sulpice is a Rayonnant Gothic parish church begun around 1245, with a three-aisled nave of six bays, side aisles over 11 m high under vaulting, and a choir raised by five steps that reaches 23 m. Its west portal, carved around 1300, has a tympanum of the Last Judgment damaged during the French Revolution and a headless trumeau statue of Saint Sulpicius. The apse has a clerestory and windows on three superimposed levels.
A parish church existed at Favières by 1100, and around 1170–80 a new church was built, of which two rib-vaulted bays survive in the Chapelle des Miracles. The present church was begun around 1245–1260, in the last years of Saint Louis, and left unfinished at his death; work stopped before the end of the 13th century. In 1652, during the Fronde, the roof frame was set on fire and the vaults of the four western nave bays collapsed, since when they are covered with a wooden barrel ceiling.
The pilgrimage, attested since the 13th century, centred on relics of Saint Sulpicius of Bourges kept in the church; the parish belonged to the diocese of Paris until the Revolution, unlike neighbouring villages. The Chapelle des Miracles, dedicated to Mary, stands north of the choir. Masses are still celebrated several times a week.
The church stands on the Place de l'Église, which forms the parvis before the west portal; the Rue aux Fèves and the Chemin du Néflier meet here. The building is clear of other structures on three sides, but the north elevation abuts the presbytery and private property. The nave's four western bays are covered by a wooden barrel vault, not stone ribbing.
The church keeps relics of Saint Sulpicius of Bourges, the 7th-century bishop to whom it is dedicated; these relics were the object of the pilgrimage. The north chapel, called Chapelle des Miracles, preserves two cross-ribbed vaulted bays from the church built around 1170/80, the only surviving parts of that earlier building.
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