FORGES ; Saint-Laurent’s Church

FORGES

Saint-Laurent’s Church

History

Until the Revolution, the region was covered with heathland and woods. It was crossed, from south to north, by a path still called in the nineteenth century the great path of Cunaud, a path that was used by the monks of Tournus fleeing from the Norman invasion in 862.

Probably, the establishment of forges in the woods led to the creation of a parish in the eleventh century.
In the twelfth century the church belonged to a lord, Hughes Bourreau who donated it to Cunault but the property was contested for a long a time, until in 1155 when the bishop of Angers confirmed it.
Until the unification of the priory with St Charles’s Seminary of Angers in 1741, the priory presented the cure and later it was the bishop.

On 29^th of June 1991, the furniture of the church was vandalized by a mentally fragile person. The extensive damage on statues, altar, pulpit and confessional demanded a long and meticulous restoration.

Description

The present church dates from the 12^th century but has undergone profound changes. It is dedicated to St Laurent. The nave, the facade and the door of which were rebuilt in the nineteenth, is unique (24 meters long by 7.3 wide) with a one-arch choir and an hemicycle apse. The base shape and small Romanesque windows from the original construction are still apparent. The arched portal, with a salient simple border, opened in the south side wall and was transformed in the sixteenth century. It was sealed up in 1856 when the western entrance was made in the gable.

The square-base bell tower rises in the south near the choir. The faces of the first floor open with two round arch- windows ; they were rebuilt in the 18^th century. The slate pyramid  above it is modern.

Inside, we face a dramatic composition in three parts: the nave, the choir with two arches set on a square plan and vaulted with diagonal ribs and the hemicycle apse.

The nave has a segmental vault in plaster. The chapel, on the left when entering, is devoted to the apparition of La Salette but in a setting, anterior to the eighteenth, set into relief by an oculus. On the sides, various liturgical objects can be seen.

Thebeautifully carved pulpit (1778), the confessional (1780) are the work of G. Létourneau. The floor of the nave, in tiles of Baugé and slate, like the marble baptismal font, dates from the 18^th century

The rib vaulting of the choir in a gothic style and walls carved and painted in the 18^th were restored in the 19^th century.

In the first arch, the secondary altars which occupy two of the angles, are dedicated to the Virgin and St. Joseph and have been blessed by the Bishop of Nantes in 1776.

The high altar is surmounted by a reredos. The two statues, originally in terra cotta, framing the panel of the Crucifixion are the work of sculptor Leysner, but they were distorted in 1856. The one on the right which represented St. François de Sales, became, at that time, St Narcisse,  patron of  a parishioner, whose name is associated with the restoration of the church. The other is the St Laurent’s presented with a grill.

The beautiful communion table, perhaps unique in Anjou, was made by “Mr. Mistouflet, a locksmith in Angers”. He may have been a member like Leysner, of the Simier brothers’team ***** who were the architects of Montgeoffroy inthe 18th century.

Among the priests, should be mentioned Francis Bellamy, born in Saumur, professor of philosophy at the Seminary of Angers, who was appointed in 1757. He established at his own expense a school teacher and each year adorned his church : the high altar in 1770 by Landais *, paintings by Lamare ** of Saumur, statues by Leysner ***, the pulpit by Létourneau **** in 1778 and the woodwork of the choir by Leroux of Doué. He is thought to  have died in the drowning of Montjean, the 29^th of November 1793.

* Landais (Pierre), a master architect in Angers in 1737.

** Lamarre, a painter of Saumur did the “golden-altar” of Noyant-sous-Doué.

*** Leysner (John Sebastian) was born in 1728 in the principality of Wurtzbourg established from 1760 in Angers, where he married. He made the woodwork of the Cathedral of Angers. He also worked at Martigné-Briant where he sculpted the altar and statues of the left collateral chapel of St. Martin; in 1771 he delivered the great altar of Saint-Laud d'Angers; and in 1774 the four marble statues that decorated the sarcophagus elevated for the service of Louis XV in the chapel of the College of La Fleche; in Nantes marble angels in the cathedral. He died in 1781.

**** Letourneau (Guillaume), a master architect in Angers in 1779.

***** The two Simier brothers, architects in Angers, worked at Gesté, St Quentin en Mauges Thouarcé, Mazé, Denée ... In 1777 they built the castle of Montgeoffroy