2023-12-31 08:17:00
A little history to start. Founded in 1123, the priory of Beaufays was served, until the end of the Ancien Régime, by regular canons of Saint Augustine. Nationalized during the Revolution, the monastic buildings passed into private hands, except the old prioral church, which was preserved by the commune to make it the parish church.
Set in a wooded and green setting, the church and the priory, now listed, are the repositories of a rich heritage. Decorated with stucco and paneling, the sanctuary, rebuilt in 1701, houses religious furniture of interest: high altar with an “Ecstasy of Saint Augustine” by Théodore-Edmond Plumier, statues by Cornelis Van der Veken and Jacques Vivroux, organ The Picard of 1742, the library of the 16th century, liturgical goldwork of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries today at the Grand Curtius, etc.
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The buildings of the priory, whose construction extends from the 15th to the middle of the 19th century, still have an old interior decoration: the large room has a vast ceiling stuccoed by Bovi (1733), just like the so-called prior’s office and a small living room, the paneled chapter room from the mid-18th century decorated with biblical paintings that Pierre-Yves Kairis attributes to Jean-Baptiste Coclers. Finally, the imposing vegetable garden is decorated with an elegant brick pavilion whose ceiling has a rich stuccoed decoration, probably from the beginning of the 18th century. As for the Dutuit triptych with silver angels, a major work of Mosan art (around 1180) from Beaufays, it is today kept at the Petit Palais in Paris.
Beaufays ©Vincent Rocher
The church. It was built in 1701 on the site of an earlier building. The year is inscribed on the vault above the main altar. The building is 44 m long and 13 m wide. The north facade is made of bricks with limestone surrounds at the corners and seven windows, while that to the south is entirely made of limestone, as is the west facade, pierced by a portal with Tuscan pilasters and a triangular pediment. This is topped by a niche which contains a statue of the Virgin, original patroness of the church, today dedicated to Christ’s favorite apostle, John. To the east of the building rises, slightly offset towards the south, a tower topped with an elegant bulbous spire, completely redone by the architect Julien Koenig in 1950 following its destruction in 1940. The interior is consisting of a single volume of seven bays, each covered with a slightly lowered quadripartite vault.
Beaufays ©Vincent Rocher
The prayer. Its oldest part is certainly the three-level square tower made of sandstone rubble under a slate pavilion with an octagonal lantern, perhaps medieval, located to the south-east of the convent buildings. Made of sandstone rubble, the first four bays of the southern part of the eastern facade, on the park side, probably date from the beginning of the 17th century, as seems to be confirmed by a beautiful interior fireplace whose left upright bears the date of 1630. From this period probably also dates the short southern facade, located in line with the church tower and slightly set back from the southeast tower, even if it has been significantly altered over time. On the other hand, the north facade of the southern wing of five bays, located on the courtyard side to the left of the church, was rebuilt under the priorate of Henri de Goha (1706-1732), as evidenced by the coat of arms placed above the front door and an inscription. On the courtyard side, the exterior legibility of the priory is strongly disturbed by the constructions of the end of the 19th century, when it passed into the hands of the Laloux family, with the creation of a closed gallery of four bays and, in the extension of this one, of a small volume with a strong projection responsible for accommodating a stairwell.
Beaufays ©Vincent Rocher
The Beaufays priory was the subject of a major interior restoration campaign when it became part of the Laloux family heritage from 1890. It is therefore not always easy to distinguish what is subsequent to this date and before it. The preserved decorations show beautiful patterns, fireplaces, paneling, stuccoed ceilings…
The vegetable garden and its pavilion. The entrance to the garden is currently marked by a gate made of bricks and limestone frames under a slate roof. This portal dates from 1742, as indicated by the year inscribed on the keystone of the limestone arch in the shape of a basket. It is very likely that it was originally located near the brewery, in place of the current gate which separates the courtyard of the farm from that of the priory itself. The garden occupies a fully walled triangular plot.
The park. Originally there were three ponds to the east of the priory, of which only the last remains today. Currently, the park appears as a vast lawn punctuated here and there with remarkable trees, sometimes isolated, sometimes grouped: American oaks (Quercus rubra), Atlas cedars (Cedrus atlantica “Glauca”), a cypress of Lawson (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), not to mention numerous green beeches (Fagus sylvatica). Unfortunately, the redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) which was planted in 1890 had to be cut down in 2022.
Beaufays Priory ©photo Vincent Rocher SPW-AWaP
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