Fenioux - Notre-Dame de l’Assomption

Fenioux, a small village with a population of less than 200, has this wonderful parish church "Notre-Dame de l’Assomption". Once the church was dedicated to "Saint-Savinien" and "Saint Pierre". It was built in the 12th century, about the same time, when Aulnay (27kms northeast) was under construction.

The church was erected over a Carolingian oratory from the 9th century, of which some parts were integrated into the new building - and so still exist around the choir. The large, western facade, with its five archivolts is breathtaking. Though vandalized during the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution, when many sculptures here lost their heads, this is still extraordenary.

There are five semicircular archivolts. The second archivolt has the virtues defeating the vices. Here a vice gets killed by a virtue´s sword, The body of the vice is pierced by the blade. The carving style is very expressive for a Romanesque work, even for a carving done in the last quarter of the 12th century. The skinny, long haired vice is depicted in the death-struggle.