Collégiale Notre-Dame of Poissy

About

Notre-Dame de Poissy is a Catholic parish church in Poissy, Yvelines, France. It was founded by King Robert the Pious around 1016, but from the 11th century church only the western bell tower remains. Indeed, the collegiate church was rebuilt from the beginning of the 12th century, especially between 1130 and 1160, in the late Romanesque style, and later in the primitive Gothic style, which manifests itself in the eastern parts.

The future Louis IX (Saint Louis) was baptized there a few days after his birth in Poissy on 25 April 1214. This event made the church famous, and the baptismal fonts of that time were still preserved there. Under all the Old Regime, a chapter of canons has its seat in the church, and long served parish.

It was dissolved at the Revolution, and the church was closed to worship, only to open again in 1802. The name collegiate is now only a reference to the past. At the beginning of the 19th century, the church fell to ruin, and its restoration by municipal architects was not a success.

Although singularly lacking homogeneity due to reshuffles...