Église Notre-Dame, Romanesque church in Besançon, France.
Église Notre-Dame is a church on Rue Mégevand in the Boucle district of Besançon. Its pale ashlar facade, built in 1720 by Jean-Pierre Galezot, has a rose window and a curved pediment above the portal. A round bell tower rises on the right, and a flamboyant Gothic portal of 1525 stands at the right of the facade.
The Benedictine abbey of Saint Vincent was founded by Archbishop Hugues II de Montfaucon, and its abbey church, with a chapel, cloister and dormitories, is attested between 1080 and 1085; Hugues III de Bourgogne named the first abbot. The community was dissolved in 1790 during the French Revolution, and under the Empire the building became the parish church Notre-Dame, with the adjoining convent buildings assigned to the University of Besançon. The nave was vaulted and an apse created in 1720.
The name Notre-Dame refers to the Virgin Mary, to whom the church is dedicated. In the nave, eight large paintings made between 1892 and 1911 by Joseph Aubert form a frieze of more than a hundred figures on a gold background, inspired by Hippolyte Flandrin's work at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Paris. A stained-glass window in the north aisle shows the defeat of the Huguenots who tried to seize Besançon in 1575.
The church is located on Rue Mégevand in the Boucle district and remains accessible to visitors throughout the year as it continues to serve as an active place of worship. This means visiting times may vary depending on services and events.
The flamboyant Gothic portal on the right of the facade was built in 1525 at the request of Antoine de Montécut, first commendatory abbot of Saint-Vincent and chaplain to Margaret of Austria. Tradition holds that it was carved by craftsmen from Franche-Comté or who had worked there after the Brou building site closed.
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