I can only drive the car until the end of the year. That’ll end my motorised photo-tours. At the moment the weather is quite bad, but I’ll certainly take as many photos as possible as long as I can. I had a lot of work on the property and in the castle and therefore I couldn’t post much and there’s a couple of photos waiting to be posted. Since someone asked me about it, thanks for reading my articles Mr S, I start with the church de la sainte Trinité in Morsan on September 16, Sunday of the Heritage Days 2012.

Before the lecture started, I grabbed the historian and told him about the last Marquis Le Sens of Morsan. About his extravagance and his parties. I didn’t want to listen to the sad and untrue story of the evil Germans that ruined him 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. He lived until the 1930s. The historian accepted what I told him and quoted me later. During his speech he must have quoted several of the women around, he was looking at us, when he was reflecting our knowledge.

The whole village was there, and above that Pierre Roussel, der head of the AMSE (Association of Friends of the Monuments and Sights in Eure), several members of that association, the mayor and an artist who has a gallery in Saint-Georges-du-Vièvre.

This time I managed to take a photo of one of the listed 18th century cantor-stools. There are only two of the 5 stools left. The others had been taken by the government. They were supposed to get restored, but never came back. They are somewhere, but nobody knows where.

The 17th century high altar is very impressive. François Le Sens donated him to the church on the occasion of his marriage. And he made similar donations in favour of the church of Notre-Dame-d’Épine. The altarpiece was added in the 19th century, it was a gift of Napoleon III (1808-1873). The historian looked at the mayor and said it would be thrilling to find out what is under this painting, maybe an older and more avluable one (that’s what they always hope). When the village has enough money, they’ll examine the painting.

After the Council of Trent (1545-1563) the interior of the churches was changed as a result of the Counter-Reformation. The interior of the churches was now supposed to improve the evangelization by means of better knowledge of the Roman-catholic creeds. Baptisms and confessions were only allowed in the nave, which represented the aspect of penance. The choir represented the triumph of the church, the heaven. That’s why the altar is highly decorated with statues of saints and angels. On top it shows the Trinity. Originally it was painted very colourful. Today the wood is painted like grey marble.

Die Seitenaltäre wurden zusammen mit dem Hauptaltar gefertigt.

Der trabes doxalis (joist of glory, poutre de gloire) is made of wood, but it looks as if it was metal. It can’t carry the weight of the triumphal cross. The cross is attached to the church vault.

The coat of arms of the Le Sens of Morsan shows three frankincense burners, because the French word for frankincense is l’encens and the pronunciation of l’encens is about the same as the pronunciation of Le Sens. All French words sound alike. Coats of arms are never very funny.

An exceptional find are several handstitched 19th century sashes of the Confrérie de charité (brotherhood of charity) of Morsan. They show naïve motifs. In the 19th century sashes of this kind were usually manufactured. These sashes are not listed yet, but it is likely, that they will be listed soon.

The vestments of the priests were made of the old dresses of the Marquise. That’s why many of them are very colourful and show flower motifs. The original free standing altar was destroyed during the French Revolution (1789-1799). There was never made a new one. The priest uses a provisorial altar today. It is covered with old vestments.

The litre seigneuriale (band of mourning) is not fully recovered yet, but on two places the coat of arms of the Le Sens gleams through the paint.

The 19th century windows sadly aren’t as tasteful as the altars.

After the lecture we met outside on the unhistorical benches and talked a bit. Monsieur C. was making jokes. “Facebook? Yes, I got Facebook, face of a buck.” The pronunciation of book and buck is the same in French. Then we went on to other monuments.

To the extent possible under law,

stanzebla
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