Collégiale Notre-Dame des Andelys, Gothic church in Les Andelys, France.
Collégiale Notre-Dame des Andelys is a Gothic church built from light grey stone, with a 13th-century facade flanked by two towers holding three bells. The left tower carries two steep pyramidal spires, the right a single taller spire. A large rose window sits above three recessed pointed portals, and the interior measures 70 m long, 24 m across the transept and 21 m under the vault.
Built from 1225 on the ruins of a women's convent founded in 511 by Saint Clothilde, wife of Clovis I, it is the oldest attested monastic foundation in Upper Normandy. Work and embellishment continued until the late 17th century, with major restoration by diocesan architect Alphonse Durand in 1860. A central tower and spire were destroyed during the Second World War.
The church keeps a carved wooden organ case dated 1573, showing biblical scenes alongside figures from mythology and the sciences known at the time. The instrument inside was built by organ maker Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Sainte Clotilde has been venerated here since 1656, when the church received one of her ribs as a relic.
The church stands in the centre of Les Andelys, in the Eure department of Normandy. The 13th-century facade faces the street, with the two towers holding the three bells; the south portal, in Flamboyant Gothic, is the most carved entrance. The chevet has a square plan, and the nave runs 70 m long under a vault 21 m high.
The church keeps a rib of Saint Clothilde, received as a relic in 1656, which made it a place of veneration for the saint who founded the original convent on this site in 511. Her life is also the subject of a stained-glass window given around 1540-1550 by Alexandre La Vache, lord of Radeval, and his wife Marguerite Hallé d'Orgeville.
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