Wissembourg
Église Saints-Pierre-et-Paul
Presentation
The present church dates back mainly to the 13th and 14th centuries, but the chapel along the eastern wing of the cloister and the tower bear witness to two Romanesque construction campaigns. The tower, completed in 1074, has five levels. The round-arched windows, unique on the first three floors, give way to double windows on the last two floors. Their size increases with the height of the building. The chapel, probably the only remnant of a building campaign completed in 1033, is rectangular in plan, with three naves of four bays each, cross-vaulted and round-arched. Some of the column shafts were trimmed to allow barrels to pass through after the French Revolution.
The Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame in Strasbourg holds the “Head of Christ”, a fragment of a stained glass window from the old Romanesque building dating from 1070, considered to be the oldest figurative stained glass window in France.
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Romanesque Alsace was divided between three bishoprics: Basel, Strasbourg and Speyer. Wissembourg fell within the territory of the latter. The first monastic settlement on the banks of the Lauter is attested as early as the 6th century. A new basilica was built in the 9th century, replaced by the present-day church in the 13th century.
The leaning tower to the west of the church bears witness to the Romanesque abbey church built in the first third of the 11th century, later replaced by the Gothic edifice visible today.
This bell tower has a monolithic appearance. The walls are smooth. There are no motifs, projections or bands to emphasize the elevation. The walls are made of small stones, squared and carefully assembled. Only the arrangement of the openings decorates the facades. The narrow openings on the first floor are blocked. An asymmetry distinguishes the south and north faces, with the upper storey of the latter featuring a triple bay.
At the base of the tower is an inscription: “Sacmuel Abbas hanc turim fecit”. This reference to Samuel, abbot from 1056 to 1096, places the construction of the tower in the second half of the 11th century, as a complement to the abbey church built in the first third of the century.