St Denys Church of Coulommiers

About

The former church of Saint Denys was a place of Catholic worship in the city of Coulommies, in the department of Seine-et-Marne and the diocese of Meaux. Successively collegial church then parish church, it meets the needs of worship for centuries but is finally considered too small and especially too old at the beginning of the sixteenth century. On 7 December 1516, the partial collapse of the vaults of the choir decided the ecclesiastical authorities to undertake profound changes in its structure.

The bell tower, previously covered by a simple wooden arrow, is enhanced by one floor. The weight of the tower on the pillars will therefore begin to tilt the bell tower, which slowly but inexorably will start to lean dangerously. In 1882 the municipality decided to shoot down the upper part of the bell tower, whose stones were regularly removed, causing fear for the safety of passers-by, residents of the neighbourhood as well as the faithful.

Since the rest of the building is in little better condition, the construction of a new church (Saint-Denys-Sainte-Foy) is decided on the site of the old cemetery and entrusted to Émile Brunet, chief architect of the monuments...