Église Saint-Martin de Vitré, Neo-Romanesque church in Vitré, France.
The Église Saint-Martin is a parish church in Vitré, Ille-et-Vilaine, built of rough-hewn grey stone. Its tall central spire, with narrow openings and flanking pinnacles, rises above a square tower with a round clock face and two arched windows. A smaller domed turret with a golden figure stands to the left, and an arcade of columns fronts the gabled entrance. Inside, rounded arches line the nave, and a carved wooden pulpit projects from the left near the front.
The parish church of Saint-Martin was founded under the lords of the Chastelet in Balazé, who held the title of founding lord and high justice of the parish. The building was inscribed as a monument historique in 2013. Its five bells, cast by the Bollée foundry of Le Mans in 1885, include a bourdon of 4,445 kg sounding in G2.
The church keeps two organs: the grand organ by Victor Gonzalez on a tribune in the first bay of the nave, inaugurated on 27 June 1948, and a choir organ of 1883 by the Debierre workshop of Nantes, set in the central round arch at the back of the choir. In the axial chapel of Notre-Dame de Grâce, a wooden Virgin and Child by Jean Fréour stands above the altar, surrounded by Louis Garin's 1957 murals of the Adoration of the Magi, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Pietà.
The church stands in the centre of Vitré, in Ille-et-Vilaine. Inside, the great organ sits on a tribune in the first bay of the nave, while the 1883 Debierre choir organ occupies the central round arch at the back of the choir. Look for the wooden Vierge à l'Enfant by Jean Fréour above the altar of the axial chapel.
The clock tower holds five bells cast in 1885 by the Bollée foundry in Le Mans. The bourdon weighs 4,445 kg and sounds G2, while the four others give C3, D3, E3 and G3. The church was inscribed as a monument historique in 2013.
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