Église Saint-Hermeland de Bagneux, Gothic church in Bagneux, France.
Église Saint-Hermeland is built of light beige stone, with a tall slate roof and a square tower topped by a dark slate spire, clock face and louvered belfry openings. Its western portal, restored in 1845-1847, has six historiated Romanesque capitals and a mutilated tympanum showing the Last Judgment. Inside, a 31.25 m nave of 1230-1240 is flanked by aisles on round columns with carved capitals.
The present church replaced an earlier building whose crypt dated from the 6th century; it was begun in 1175 under Philip Augustus. The choir was built around 1180 and the nave in 1230-1240, completed under Louis IX, while the base of the bell tower dates from the early 12th century. Differences in rib profiles and carving quality show two campaigns; the building was heavily altered in 1845 and 1870 and classified as a monument historique in 1862.
The church is nicknamed the "petite Notre-Dame" because its 13th-century nave, built in 1230-1240, resembles that of Notre-Dame de Paris, on whose canons' chapter it depended. Before the Revolution the parish belonged to the archdeaconry of Josas; today it is one of 14 parishes in the deanery of Pointe Sud, diocese of Nanterre.
The church stands at no. 8, place de la République in Bagneux, in the Hauts-de-Seine. The building was heavily altered in 1845 and again in 1870, and the western portal was restored between 1845 and 1847 by the architect Claude Naissant. It remains the parish church of Saint-Hermeland, one of the 14 parishes of the doyenné de la Pointe Sud in the diocese of Nanterre, so visits coincide with services.
The nave, built 1230–1240, was modelled on Notre-Dame de Paris, whose canons' chapter the parish depended on; it measures 31.25 m by 13.44 m. On the first three bays, three figures of men or angels face the choir as the theological virtues, while three grotesque figures symbolising vices turn their backs on them.
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