The Americans in the Great War; v. 3. The Meuse-Argonne Battlefields: (Montfaucon, Romagne, Saint-Menehould)
History
The Americans in the Great War; v. 3. The Meuse-Argonne Battlefields: (Montfaucon, Romagne, Saint-Menehould)
Argonne, Battle of the, France, 1918; France -- Guidebooks
The church, surrounded by a graveyard, stands on a rock in the centre of
the old town, of which nothing is left but fragments of the castle and
some ruined walls to the south and south-west. The church was built in
the 13th and 14th centuries. Its exterior is massive; the main doorway
is hidden by a modern porch. Beyond the Chapel of the Virgin, on the
right of the choir, a low sacristy was added at the end of the 17th or
beginning of the 18th century. Some fine fragments of earlier sculpture
(five panels depicting scenes from the Passion, and three richly
decorated canopies) have been incrusted in the outside walls. Tombstones
have been built into the walls on either side of the doorway in the left
transept, at the entrance to the church.
The interior consists of five naves with low vaulting. In the left arm
of the transept, under a tri-cusped pointed arcade, the group “The Death
of the Virgin,” represents the Virgin recumbent, with children reading
and clinging to her hands and feet, and eight weeping women carrying
books. In the chapel on the left of the choir there is a 17th century
picture--a view of St. Menehould, with three figures, one of which is
the Patron-Saint of the town; the other two are supposed to be Louis
XIII. and Richelieu. Behind this chapel, which was formerly used for the
ceremonies of the town-guilds, is a recess called the Treasury, a small
vaulted 15th century room opening on the choir. The polygonal choir
presents a fine appearance with its five slightly pointed windows,
framed by two archivolts, supported on little columns with Romanesque
capitals. All around is an elegant 13th century arcade, screened with
rather heavy woodwork. The last nave on the right consists of three
separate 14th century chapels. The capitals of the aisles represent
human heads. The chapel of the Virgin contains a curious capital
representing an oak laden with acorns, towards which a peasant is
driving three pigs. This Chapel was founded in 1552 by the Lord de
Saulx, and was used from the end of the 16th century onward by the Guild
of Vine-dressers, who had the vaulting painted with frescoes. It is also
known as the Chapel of our Lady of the Vines. Formerly it contained a
number of tombstones, since removed. There is still to be seen, in one
of the chapels off the right aisle, a large and very fine 15th century
tombstone with effigies of Jean Toignel and his wife under a handsomely
carved Renaissance pediment.
_Take the Rue du Cimetière, which passes behind the church, then the Rue
Basse-du-Château, which leads to a path skirting the old walls of the
castle. From this path there is_ a fine view over the town, the Valleys
of the Aisne and the Auve, and the surrounding hills. _Go round the
cliffs and return to the steps which lead down to the Rue Chanzy._
SECOND DAY: Sainte-Menehould, Varennes, Montfaucon, Grandpré,
Vienne-le-Château, La Gruerie Wood, Le Four-de-Paris, La Haute-Chevauchée
and La Chalade.
Distance: 130 km.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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