Coulaines

The church of Saint Nicholas was first erected in the second half of the 11th century. It was consecrated in 1087 and dedicated to Saint Nicholas. The chancel dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries. Its tower, with its rare hoarding, dates from the 14th century. It was used as a watchtower in the troubled period of the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

In the 16th century, a wealthy vicar, named Bellanger¹, funded the construction of a two-storey chapel : the present transept. The upper storey - which he had dedicated to his protector, Saint Geoffrey, was reserved for his private use. Giving access to this private chapel, a canopied exterior staircase started from what is now the first sacristy and reached a doorway, which is still visible - from the outside - on the eastern wall of the chapel. The stairway itself no longer exists.

During restoration work carried out in 1995, thanks to Gérard Bouvier de Challes, some drawings were discovered, which might have been commissioned by Geoffroy Bellanger, to decorate the staircase.

"The mural paintings of Coulaines were executed using a technique known as 'sgrafitto'. Sgraffito is a decorating technique developed centuries ago. In its simplest embodiment, fresh mortar is coated with a mixture of wood ashes and whitewash, itself covered with a thin layer of whitewash. Then a pattern or picture is added by carving through or scraping off the uppermost layer to reveal the bluish coating of ash and whitewash underneath. "

These frescoes (wet mortar) were described as "rather exceptional" and worth preserving by architects of the Monuments Historiques in 1995 and 2002.

In her thesis, Miss Leduc² explains the source of these drawings: "These sgrafitti in the church of Coulaines were inspired by an engraving by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau³(1520-1586). Du Cerceau himself had copied a decoration executed by Antonio Fantuzzi for the Château of Fontainebleau between 1542 and 1545.