The former abbey church of La Trinité preserves transept walls from the original 11th-
century Romanesque structure, and the stained-glass window of the Virgin in one of the
chapels off the ambulatory is 12th-century. However, the vaulting is 13th-century, the
windows of the clerestory are 14th-century, and the façade is Flamboyant Gothic. Near
the church is a detached belfry with a 12th-century stone spire that rises 260 feet and is
considered the prototype of the Romanesque south tower at Chartres. Of the conventual
buildings, there remain the sacristy (14th c.), chapter house (14th c.), a wing of the
cloister (14th-15th c.), and the abbot’s lodgings (15th-16th c.).
R.Thomas McDonald
Barthélemy, Dominique. La société dans le comté de Vendôme: de l’an mil au XIVe siècle. Paris:
Fayard, 1993.
Eudes de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. Vie de Bouchard-le-Vénérable, comte de Vendôme, de Corbeil,
de Melun, et de Paris (Xe et XIe siècles), ed. Bourel de la Roncière. Paris: Picard, 1892.
Plat, Gabriel. L’église de la Trinité de Vendôme. Paris: Laurens, 1934.
VERDUN
. The Gallo-Roman fortress Virodunum Castrum occupied a strategic location along the
Meuse River. Verdun (Meuse) was elevated to the rank of bishopric in the 3rd century
and was an active port and commercial outpost from the 8th century. The city gave its
name to the treaty of 843, which divided Charlemagne’s empire among his three
grandsons. From the 12th century on, the French kings battled with the Holy Roman
emperor for jurisdictional rights over the city. It later became one of the “Three
Bishoprics” (with Toul and Metz) that were united to France in 1552.
Outside of the city walls, Saintin, an early Christian apostle, erected the first sanctuary
dedicated to St. Peter (ca. 350). In the 10th century, the Benedictine abbey of Saint-
Vanne was founded upon this site. By the early 11th cen-tury, it was one of the most
celebrated in the West. Only a 12th-century tower, incorporated into Vauban’s 17th-
century citadel, remains. In the 13th century, Verdun hosted communities of Dominicans,
Franciscans, and Victorines.
Upon an original 6th-century foundation, the cathedral of Notre-Dame was rebuilt and
expanded under the Teutonic bishop Thierry the Great (r. 1047–89) after fire destroyed
the previous building in 1048. The church was further developed under Bishop Albéron
de Chiny (r. 1132–52). In the style of the great Carolingian churches of Saxony, the
basilica structure has transepts and apses at both its east and its west ends. Each transept
is capped by two towers. (Today, the eastern towers are razed at roof level.) In the 13th
and 14th centuries, ribbed vaults were constructed over the aisles, transepts, choirs, and
nave. The monumental northern portal and porch date from the 14th century, and the
Gothic chapels along the aisles from the 15th.
The Rhenish tendencies of the overall structure are complemented by elements typical
of the Burgundian Romanesque. The polygonal structure of the eastern apse is similar to
that at Autun, and the sculpture of the eastern portal, showing Christ in Majesty, recalls
the style of the tympanum at Vézelay.
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