1213 during his struggles with King John Lackland; and Edmund Rich was buried here in
1240.
The abbey’s most generous benefactor was Thibaut II le Grand of Champagne, who in
1150 gave the abbey the means to build its current church (ca. 1150–1210) and to
surround its properties with a 13-foot stone wall. The church is an imposing if severe
example of Burgundian Gothic style; its long nave with seven bays is the earliest example
of Cistercian rib vaulting. The early 13th-century choir, with its ambulatory and eleven
radiating chapels, is especially elegant. Little remains of the other conventual buildings.
William W.Kibler/William W.Clark
[See also: CISTERCIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE; THIBAUT]
Aubert, Marcel. “Abbaye de Pontigny.” Congrès archéologique (Auxerre) 116 (1958):163–68.
Fontaine, Georges. Pontigny, abbaye cistercienne. Paris: Leroux, 1928.
Kinder, Terryl N. “Architecture of the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny, the Twelfth-Century Church.”
Diss. Indiana University, 1982.
PONTOISE
. Saint-Maclou, the only surviving medieval church of Pontoise (Val-d’Oise), was raised
to the status of cathedral in 1966. The first church of Saint-Maclou was built ca. 1145–60
by a builder who had worked for Abbot Suger on the chevet of Saint-Denis. The plan of
the chevet of Saint-Maclou, a shallow choir bay surrounded by an ambulatory with five
contiguous chapels, is in fact an attempt to simplify the ambitious plan of the upper level
of the chevet of Saint-Denis. At Saint-Maclou, the deep chapels and the ambulatory bays
in front of them are covered by single five-part rib-vault units, the design of which is
based on the vaults of the Saint-Denis chapels. The projecting transept arms flank a
crossing tower and announce the height of the nave of six bays. The original nave
elevation may have had three stories, but the Flamboyant redecoration left only the
clerestory windows and their flanking columns and capitals in place. The 1453
enlargement also resulted in the splendid but incomplete Flamboyant façade. The north
nave aisle was doubled in the 16th century and remains one of the gems of early French
Renaissance architecture.
Pontoise also housed the important Benedictine abbey of Saint-Martin, founded by St.
Gautier (d. 1099). The church disappeared without a trace after the Revolution, although
old plans and views confirm that it too had a chevet plan based on the work of Abbot
Suger at Saint-Denis.
William W.Clark
Lefèvre-Pontalis, Eugène. Monographie de l’église Saint-Maclou de Pontoise. Pontoise: Amédée
Paris, 1888.
——.“Pontoise, église Saint-Maclou.” Congrès archéologique (Paris) 82 (1919):76–99.
Régnier, Louis. “L’abbaye de Saint-Martin de Pontoise.” Excursions archéologiques dans le Vexin
français 1 (1922):134–48.
——.“Notre-Dame de Pontoise.” Excursions archéologiques dans le Vexin français 1 (1922):1–17.
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