Église Saint-Hermeland de Saint-Herblain, Medieval church in Saint-Herblain, France.
The église Saint-Hermeland is a Gothic church of grey masonry whose facade rises to a central gable topped by a stone cross. A pointed-arch portal with a carved rose window and red double door sits on the left, with three tall pointed-arch windows above; a slender grey spire rises behind the roofline. Inside, the nave and two side aisles are covered by a 15th-century oak barrel vault painted azure with red and gold ornament and carved dragon heads at the ends of the tie beams. The building measures 87 metres long and 14 metres wide, with walls over 8 metres high.
Built in the 15th century, the church is one of the few Gothic-style churches in the Nantes area. It was altered at the end of the 19th century, with the nave enlarged and the choir and sacristies rebuilt, and was inscribed as a monument historique on 21 December 1925.
The church is named after Hermeland of Indre, a Frankish prelate who founded the monastery of Indre and evangelised the Nantes region between the 7th and 8th centuries. A 19th-century painted wooden statue of him stands in a niche holding his relics. Before him, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, shown with her wheel, was reportedly the parish's patron saint.
The church is 87 metres long and 14 metres wide at its widest point, with walls over 8 metres high, so allow time to walk the nave, two side aisles, transept and choir. The 15th-century granite and tuffeau cross stands outside on the south side, on the site of the former cemetery.
The blue stained glass, destroyed in the bombing of 16 September 1943, was rebuilt from surviving fragments starting in 1987. The windows depict episodes from the life of Saint Hermeland, the 7th–8th century founder of the Indre monastery.
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