Collégiale Notre-Dame de Crécy-la-Chapelle, Gothic church in Crécy-la-Chapelle, France

The Collégiale Notre-Dame de Crécy-la-Chapelle is a Gothic church with a three-storey nave of six bays, arcades on massive columns, a triforium of double trefoil arches and oculi in the spandrels. There is no transept; the choir ends in a seven-sided apse covered by a twelve-rib vault radiating from a central keystone, and the side aisles close in slanting apsidioles with seven-rib vaults from the 13th century.

The church was built between 1202 and 1250 and has shaped the town's character since then. In 1421 it suffered heavy damage from English forces during the Hundred Years War, requiring significant restoration work.

The church keeps a 1531 stone baptismal font whose two basins, carved with arabesques and resting on columns with leaf friezes, still show traces of their original paint. A polychrome sculpture group of the Gnadensstuhl (Throne of Grace) dates from the 15th century, and stone figures of Saint Stephen and Saint Fiacre from the 16th century are displayed inside.

The site is best experienced with a guided tour, which allows you to explore the medieval details more closely. Such a tour takes you through the interior and explains what to look for to really understand the construction.

Flooding from the Morin and the Vaudessart stream repeatedly submerged the church, so the floor was raised in 1641, 1676 and 1730, lifting the ground level by up to three metres. The paving was lowered back toward its original level in 1980, when automatic electric pumps were installed to drain the water.