Collegiate church of Saint-Martin de Champeaux

The most beautiful religious building in the Brie region, the Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin de Champeaux is the only remaining reminder of a college (community) of canons that was home to a famous centre for theological studies and singing.
The Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin de Champeaux, listed as a Historic Monument in 1940, is a large and beautiful church built between the mid-12th and early 14th centuries.
It was the church of a Chapter of canons, also known as the Collège, hence its name of collegiate church. There was a singing school that trained singers for communities throughout the region in these exceptional acoustics.
The prosperity of the canons enabled the construction of a church with remarkable architectural qualities. It is 69.55 m long, 24.20 m wide, 15.30 m high in the nave and has a steeple almost 30 m high. The oldest parts of the building, such as the transept, date back to the mid-12th century, while the rest of the church illustrates the main stages of Radiant Gothic architecture.
Completed in the early 14th century, the church has survived almost intact, enriched in the Renaissance by a fine collection of stained glass windows and beautiful choir stalls, and in the 18th century by a large carved wooden altarpiece.

The architecture, which is in a fairly simple early Gothic style, is nevertheless enriched by sculptures: a large number of capitals carved with plant motifs, and various figures and monsters dotted around the choir and transept. The Collegiate Church contains the largest collection of 14th-century tombstones in the region.

In 1946, faced with the state of disrepair into which the monument had fallen, the Association des Amis de la Collégiale was founded to help the commune preserve and promote this heritage.

The Collegiate Church is home to a number of objects protected as Monuments Historiques: 16th-century statues, a 17th-century tabernacle, an 18th-century eagle-lutrin, 19th-century prie-Dieu and a cantor's stool...

The famous sculptor Rodin was fascinated by this beautiful monument, to which he often returned. He produced architectural drawings of the Collegiate Church, reproductions of which are on display here.

The Guillaume de Champeaux Association has been organising concerts, exhibitions and guided tours of the Collegiate Church since 1983.