- Building Information
Longpont
(Aisne, France)
Saint-Sébastien
Surveyed: 1980-83, 2003, 2015
- Locator Map
Longpont (Aisne, France) - Saint-Sébastien
- Disclaimer
The dating found here is based on the work of John James, and is meant on this site to serve as a starting point. James' dating is derived from a system that uses his interpretation of the development of capitals over time as the basis for chronology, among other factors. His goal is to refine the dating to within years rather than decades. I have not fully embraced James' methodology, and will be developing this page from its current state to one which is admittedly more conservative. The relative expenditure values found in the Timeline are also based on James' work, and I believe these to be reasonably reliable. They are intended only to give a sense of the amount of work involved in each decade.

I have added the idea of the "project" as a way of separating work in buildings. In my mind, a "project" is a discrete section of work in a building that resulted from the one-time acquisition of funding. "Projects" are generally separated by at least a decade where no work was being done. It is my view that it would have been unwise to start a "project" that could not be finished and protected from the elements, and as such a "project" usually involved a wing or multiple wings of a building, from floor to roof. Rural churches, which could only secure small amounts of funding at irregular intervals, often were the result of many small projects, while the great churches, which benefitted from relatively consistent funding, may have involved only a few large projects.
- Timeline with Relative Expenditure (if available, in building units)





- Project A - 1180s - Phase 1 - choir (b,a,t)
Setout the choir and walls of the transepts with bases and corbel over entry to the south that suggest it was the work of Scarlet.
- Project A - 1190s - Phase 2 - choir (c+)
Choir clerestory
- Project A - 1200s - Phase 3 - nave aisle (s)
Walls of nave to about the level of the sills and west doors.
- Project A - 1200s - Phase 4 - nave (a)
Nave aisle capitals and vaults
- Project A - 1200s - Phase 5 - nave (t)
Nave triforium
- Project A - 1210s - Phase 6 - nave (c+)
Nave clerestory tracery, vaults, probably transepts too.
- Project A - 1220s - Phase 7 - transept (c)
Transept clerestory
- Primary Sources for Dating
1214, 21 June - LONGPT-S
Eleonore, countess de Vermandois, gives oak for the stalls and the roof
Obit Ainors, countess of Saint-Quentin who dedicates to us all of the oak located above the head of our church and all of the oak for our stalls and for the best windows.

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Collection Balluze, xlvi, 463.
1227, 24 October - LONGPT-S
Dedication
1227, 9 calends of November, the basilica was dedicated and the high altar consecrated…

Muldrac, Antonio, Compendiosum abbatiae Longipontis suessionensis Chronicon, Paris, 1652, 234.