Église Saint-Genest de Flavigny-sur-Ozerain

What you will see

Inside, look up at the galleries that line the nave, then at the tribune across its far end, with its flamboyant Gothic balustrade and built-in pulpit. In the choir, the carved 16th-century stalls were made for a brotherhood of clerics, the Messieurs de Saint-Genest, founded in 1459. Among the statues, look for a 12th-century nursing Virgin and a 15th-century Angel of the Annunciation. The Romanesque doorway of the first church can still be seen in the south chapel.

History

In the 11th century a Romanesque baptistery stood here, belonging to the abbey, with a porch tower whose stairs led up to a chapel; only its doorway survives, inside the south chapel. In the 13th century the church was rebuilt in the Gothic style around the old tower, whose stairs inspired the two-level plan. From 1434 to 1438 Quentin Ménard, archbishop of Besançon and a native of Flavigny, raised the nave vault, lengthened the sanctuary, added choir stalls and built the tribune with a pulpit for preaching to crowds. The church was consecrated in 1435.

Wealthy families added side chapels in the 16th and 17th centuries. Lightning destroyed the façade in 1744, and its plain front dates from about 1757. In 1793 the relics of Saint Reine were moved into the church. Saint-Genest was among the eight Côte-d'Or buildings on the first list of historic monuments in 1840. After the exterior and the belfry were saved, a restoration of the tribune, the transept, the chapel of Saint John the Baptist and the wall paintings began in March 2026.