Église Sainte-Radegonde de Giverny, Romanesque church in Giverny, France.
Église Sainte-Radegonde is built of light grey and beige stone blocks under a steep brown tiled roof, with a taller tower behind the roof crowned by a dark grey octagonal spire and a small cross. The front gable has two tall pointed-arch windows with stone tracery and a smaller window above; a pale stone cross stands on the roof ridge, and a low stone wall with a metal gate runs along the base. The semicircular apse is the oldest part, and the bell tower with its octagonal spire sits between nave and choir.
Construction of this church began in the 11th century with the Romanesque apse and underwent major expansions during the 15th and 16th centuries. The architectural layers visible today reflect these different building phases and the evolving styles of their time.
The church is dedicated to Saint Radegund, a 6th-century Frankish queen, and a stone statue of her stands to the left of the choir. In the cemetery around the building lies the grave of Claude Monet and his family, which draws many visitors to the village.
The church stands in Giverny, and the cemetery that surrounds it holds the grave of Claude Monet and his family. The building is a listed monument historique, inscribed in 1927 and fully in 2009, so access to the interior follows the conditions of a protected parish church.
The two bells, Adèle Amélie and Jeanne Emma, were cast in 1861 by A. Hilderrand, founder to Emperor Napoleon III, and paid for by municipal subscription; dean Damoiseau d'Ecos blessed them. Among the church's stone fragments is a 14th-century statue whose head was struck off, probably during the Revolution.
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