Collégiale Saint-Pierre-la-Cour

About

The Collège Saint-Pierre-la-Court is a former collegiate church located in the city of Le Mans. This is the ancient church dedicated to the Counts of Maine whose palace was adjacent. Built as the cathedral on horseback on the Gallo-Roman enclosure, it is attested from the High Middle Ages.

At first simple chapel, it has a chapter of canons by Hugues I, who is also the first count to consider Saint Peter as his personal chapel. The college then took advantage of the rise of the Comtal dynasty, and Count Elijah I had it rebuilt at the end of the 11th century. Until the Revolution, it contains the relics of Scholasticus, patron saint of Le Mans, invoked in particular against fires.

Henry II of England restored the collegiate church in the 12th century, but it was above all the addition of the monumental two-storey bedside in the 13th century by Charles II of Anjou who finished giving the building its imposing stature. The college was desecrated in 1790 and turned into an arsenal. However, it passes through the Revolution, even if its furniture is scattered or destroyed.

The enlargement of Saint Peter's Square in 1812, however, caused irreversible damage...