L'Épine Travel Guide

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The Jube is topped by a tall Cross and ends in an elaborate choir screen but it only has a single north entrance. The altar has a modest baldachin which is surrounded by Gothic and Renaissance sides covered with female grotesques on the choir sides. The East end of the chevet is covered by a set of 19C stained glass windows of a Calvary with Deposition sets on each lateral side.

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The interior of this Basilica is as largeand elaborate as a cathedral with a long nave, aisles, ambulatory, a five chapel east end, a deep choir ending with a Jube across the width at its west end and wide transepts on both the north and south before the nave. There is a large Rose window at the west end.

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All sorts of figures are individually depicted on the well made gargoyles which are placed prominently or sometimes in corners and crannies. Each one is different; at least half of them appear to be sorts of realistic canines. Many are unpleasant looking human figures dressed in a current manner.

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The outside of the Basilica is covered with moderate sized sculptures as well as the large ones already seen above the west entrance and on the trumeau, such as the central tympanum and lintel of the west facade where scenes of the Passion are present. The latera; entries are elaborate but have figurated scenes only on the lintels and also scenes from the life of the Baptist on the South transept lintels. Lastly, this leads one to looking at the well shaped voussures above the main west portal.

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The Basilica of Notre-Dame d'Epine is an unusually large church at the edge of a village of 600 people, 7 km east of Chalons-sur-Marne, literally out in the countryside. The church was built between 1410 and 1527. Later in the 16C a splendid Jube (choir-screen) was added and a redone Renaissance North choir area was added. Only the west facade is totally Flamboyant. There are two unequal height towers with the south one 55m tall, each with a steeple. Both wear and destructive Revolution effects have partly diminished the beauty of the facade sculpture but in spite of this there are an enormous number of interesting gargoyles to examine. In 1797 the north tower was partly destroyed and its upper part was made into a telegraph semaphore tower that ran from Paris to Strasbourg used past 1850. Later this early antique of the Industrial Age was removed and the tower restored to its original purpose. Parts of the lintel and voussoirs are still intact as is the trumeau of the central portal and a large Crucifixion under the Rose window.