Quotes
L’ornementation de l’église, véritable poème de pierre, qui attestera longtemps et son zèle intelligent et son sens artistique peu commun, et sa ténacité admirable.
The ornamentation of the church, a veritable poem in stone, will long bear witness to his intelligent zeal, his uncommon artistic sense and his admirable tenacity.
M. le doyen de Desvres 1906
Un curé de village – digne successeur des prêtres bâtisseurs du Moyen-Age – passa 43 ans de sa vie à agrandir, embellir et décorer son église – l’église de Wirwignes, qui est aujourd’hui l’une des plus curieuses et des plus émouvantes du pays boulonnais.
A village priest – worthy successor to the priest-builders of the Middle Ages – spent 43 years of his life enlarging, embellishing and decorating his church – the church of Wirwignes, which today is one of the most curious and moving in the Boulonnais region.
Arnaud De Corbie 1933
De l’extérieur, l’église de Wirwignes ne paye pas de mine… Un édifice religieux du XIXe siècle en briques comme tant d’autres… Mais une fois passé le porche, le visiteur écarquille les yeux d’étonnement. Sous les projecteurs, les murs, les voûtes et les colonnes foisonnent de couleurs et d’ornements: peintures, mosaïques en marbre, sculptures, inscriptions pieuses…
From the outside, the church at Wirwignes doesn’t look like much… A 19th century brick religious building like so many others… But once past the porch, visitors’ eyes widen in amazement. Under the spotlights, the walls, vaults and columns are bursting with colour and ornament: paintings, marble mosaics, sculptures, pious inscriptions…
L’église de Wirwignes – La Voix du Nord, 24 juillet 2005
Considérant que l’église Saint-Quentin de Wirwignes présente un intérêt du point de vue de l’histoire et de l’histoire de l’art, suffisant pour en rendre désirable la protection comme une œuvre d’art totale, création originale de l’abbé Lecoutre, et un édifice pionnier dans l’émergence de l’Art naïf en France dans le dernier tiers du XIXe siècle.
Considering that the church of Saint-Quentin in Wirwignes is of sufficient interest from the point of view of history and the history of art to make its protection desirable as a total work of art, an original creation by Abbé Lecoutre, and a pioneering building in the emergence of naive art in France in the last third of the 19th century.
Arrêté du 2 mai 2006 (référence 2006 D 6324) pour l’inscription de l’église à l’inventaire des monuments historiques.
Il la refit à sa façon, afin de catéchiser ses ouailles, de leur rendre le message divin plus accessible, s’éloignant des canons esthétiques ordinaires pour une église. Aidé de quelques paroissiens, il mania habilement le ciment et en extrait des statues qu’il installa dans l’église: Adam et Eve, palmiers, etc.
He rebuilt it in his own way, to catechise his flock and make the divine message more accessible to them, moving away from the usual aesthetic canons for a church. With the help of a few parishioners, he skilfully worked the cement into statues that he installed in the church: Adam and Eve, palm trees, and so on.
Moulinié 2010
Monument d’art populaire du XVe siècle, l’église Saint-Quentin est un chef d’œuvre original. Cet édifice a été décoré de l’intérieur par l’abbé Lecoutre qui a retracé ainsi ses voyages en Italie, en Terre Sainte à la façon du Facteur Cheval, mêlant le marbre et la pierre du Boulonnais dans un style oriental.
A 15th-century monument to popular art, Saint-Quentin church is an original masterpiece. The interior of the building was decorated by Abbé Lecoutre, who retraced his travels in Italy and the Holy Land in the style of Facteur Cheval, combining marble and stone from the Boulonnais region in an oriental style.
WIRWIGNES L’église se visite jusque fin août – La Voix du Nord 3 août 2017
Surprenante, originale, avant-gardiste, l’église Saint-Quentin de Wirwignes, située dans l’arrière-pays vallonné du Boulonnais, est une curiosité à ne pas manquer. En effet, l’église est un exemple unique d’un art populaire qui s’inscrit dans le courant d’Art Naïf représenté par le Douanier Rousseau à la fin du XIXème siècle…
L’abbé Lecoutre […] crée une décoration originale de son église du Pas-de-Calais: décor étonnant mêlant les couleurs et les accents orientaux avec les marbres et les pierres occidentaux. Il utilise un art libéré des codes classiques, multiplie le mobilier, les statuettes et insère des maximes de la Bible dans les murs et les voûtes. L’édifice devient un support pour la catéchèse pour une population en partie illettrée à l’époque. L’abbé souhaite aider ses paroissiens à être pénétrés des enseignements de la Bible.
Surprising, original and avant-garde, the church of Saint-Quentin in Wirwignes, situated in the hilly hinterland of the Boulonnais region, is a curiosity not to be missed. In fact, the church is a unique example of popular art that is part of the Naïve Art movement represented by Douanier Rousseau at the end of the 19th century…
Abbé Lecoutre […] created an original decoration for his church in the Pas-de-Calais: an astonishing décor blending oriental colours and accents with western marble and stone. He used an art style that was free of classical codes, multiplying the furniture and statuettes and inserting maxims from the Bible into the walls and vaults. The building became a support for catechism teaching for a population that was largely illiterate at the time. The abbot wanted to help his parishioners learn from the Bible.
Open churches (églises ouvertes) Saint Quentin Wirwignes
Rarement l’expression « son église » aura été aussi exacte, car cette église est véritablement son œuvre.
Rarely has the expression « his church » been so accurate, for this church is truly his work.
Joyau méconnu, l’église de Wirwignes est un exemple essentiel de ce que l’on nomme à la fin du XIXe siècle « l’Art Naïf », dont les artistes les plus célèbres sont le facteur Cheval et le douanier Rousseau.
A little-known gem, the church at Wirwignes is an essential example of what was known at the end of the 19th century as « Naïve Art », whose most famous artists were Le facteur Cheval and Le douanier Rousseau.
Chaque détail, imaginé et sculpté par l’abbé, est porteur de sens; des autels aux sculptures, en passant par les confessionnaux ou la chaire, rien n’est laissé au hasard.
Every detail, imagined and sculpted by the Abbé, carries meaning; from the altars to the sculptures, from the confessionals to the pulpit, nothing is left to chance.
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C’est sans aucun doute un des édifices religieux les plus surprenants de notre région. L’intérieur est entièrement décoré de fresques du XIXe entre Art Naïf et orientalisme. Un foisonnement pictural qu’on doit à l’abbé Paul Amédé Lecoutre qui pendant plus de 40 ans va transformer l’intérieur de l’église Saint-Quentin en un livre d’images absolument hallucinant. A visiter vraiment.
This is undoubtedly one of the most surprising religious buildings in our region. The interior is entirely decorated with nineteenth-century frescoes combining naive art and orientalism. This pictorial profusion is the work of Abbé Paul Amédé Lecoutre, who for over 40 years transformed the interior of Saint-Quentin church into an absolutely mind-blowing picture book. A must-see!
Caroline Noël, Nord Découverte 3 janvier 2021
Foreign visitors appreciate
Wow, such marvelous painting inside.
This church is a real treasure!
Extraordinary place.
The paintings were done with love.
I’ve never seen a church so thoroughly decorated as this one…
It is rare that church interiors, other than cathedrals or other really exceptional sites, stir my imagination, but this place had something special in the air inside it… the soul of the artist who decorated it lives on there…
What if the whole world was like that? Wonderful thought.
Just fantastic! A real treasure!
Wow! All the painted detail is amazing, I don’t believe I have ever been in a Church emblished in any way like this. I like it!
This is the kind of interior that makes my heart sing and to know the artist’s name is so rare.
Magic Lantern Show or … Mr. Toad’s travel diary
Abbé Lecoutre in books
As early as 1882, Daniel Haigneré mentioned the work of Abbé Paul Lecoutre, without however making any assessment.
L’église de Wirwignes, sous le vocable de S. Quentin, était un édifice du XVe ou du XVIe siècle, qui vient d’être entièrement restauré et considérablement agrandi par les soins de M. l’abbé Paul Lecoutre, natif de Wierre-Effroy, curé actuel. C’est à lui et à son œuvre qu’un homme de foi et de cœur, feu M. Adolphe Gérard, faisait allusion en 1873, lorsqu’il signalait à la reconnaissance de ses contemporains le zèle de ces simples desservants qui consacrent à la régénération de leurs églises un dévouement sans bornes, un savoir qu’ils sont seuls à ne pas reconnaître, un désintéressement pour lequel la langue ne fournit pas assez d’éloges, car, disait-il, ils y absorbent leur patrimoine (1).
(1) Chemin de fer de Saint-Omer – Bénédiction de la gare de Lottinghen, le dimanche 14 août 1873. Boulogne-sur-Mer: Imprimerie Camille Le Roy, pages 6-7.
The church in Wirwignes, dedicated to S. Quentin, was built in the 15th or 16th century and has just been completely restored and considerably enlarged by Abbé Paul Lecoutre, a native of Wierre-Effroy and the current parish priest. It was to him and his work that a man of faith and heart, the late M. Adolphe Gérard, alluded in 1873, when he pointed out to the gratitude of his contemporaries the zeal of these simple servants who devote to the regeneration of their churches a boundless devotion, a knowledge that only they do not recognise, a selflessness for which the language does not provide enough praise, because, he said, they absorb their heritage in it (1).
(1) Chemin de fer de Saint-Omer – Bénédiction de la gare de Lottinghen, le dimanche 14 août 1873. Boulogne-sur-Mer: Imprimerie Camille Le Roy, pages 6-7.
Haigneré D. (1882) pages 434-435
Paul Lecoutre’s work seems to have been ignored by the French for a long time. In 1914 the Englishmen W. D. Craufurd, E. Manton and E. A. Manton, in their travel guide Peeps into Picardy, republished in 1919, gave a glowing description.
In the little village of Wirwignes — some three miles off, hidden away from the world — there is to be seen a remarkable monument to human perseverance and determination. Probably few will have heard of, or indeed will ever hear of, this little village church ; still, those who do visit it must bow their heads in reverence before the work, done by a simple curé, to the glory of his Maker. He worked unceasingly, and, unlike the Lady of Shalott, who left her task to gaze at the passers-by, stuck to his work until he was able to see his long-wished-for ideal completed, his life-work accomplished ere- he died. The curé decorated this church almost entirely by his own handiwork. The only assistance he received was by the gift of marble for his mosaics and colours for his paintings. All the side chapels, of which there are a great many, are done in mosaic, with slabs of marble in various designs to form a dado on either side of the altars. No two chapels are alike. The Stations of the Cross, sculptured in stone and tinted, are let into the wall round the church. The pillars are each painted with different designs, some quite excellent. The two large pillars supporting the chancel arch are coated with marble mosaics, as in the inner walls of the church, including the space under the centre tower and the baptistery. The floor is marble. The altars are all of carved stone, with the exception of the high altar, which, with its altar rails, is Renaissance, and of carved wood. Many of the super-altars in the chapels are most curious in design, especially the representations in the chapel of St. Joseph, of the Virgin and Child and St. Joseph in ordinary beds, with bedclothes. These are done in relief, with gold background. Small coloured statuettes of the saints are all round the centre chancel arch, in niches, and again on pedestals above the capitals of the pillars throughout the church. The pulpit deserves special attention. The pedestal represents the « Fall » — the figures of Adam and Eve being about half life size, whilst the Tree forms the support in white marble. Behind, on the pillar, is a figure of Christ, also in relief.
The church stands as a glorious monument to human perseverance and devotion to a higher cause. It was in this same spirit our great cathedrals were raised. The cure’s grave, just outside the church on the north side, bears this inscription: « A la mémoire de M. l’Abbé Paul Lecoutre, curé de Wirwignes pendant 43 ans, 1863-1906, pieusement décédé dans sa paroisse le 12 Novembre 1906, dans sa 77e année; » but the church is his real monument, for it will long preserve his memory.
Craufurd, Manton & Manton (1914) pages 74-76
In 1915-1916, the Canadian Clare Gass provided an astonishing and moving account of the Wirwignes church, especially given the history of this nursing sister.
JULY 29 [1915]
Ruth & I had a half day off so decided to go to Wirwignes to see the little church, built by the hands of one man, the Curé of the Parish We went through Neuve Chatel, on to Samer, out through Wierre aux Bois & Carly: then at the sign post turned into a narrow stony unfrequented road which took us out to the Montreuil road in sight of the spire of our little church. […] Our church was even more wonderful than the description in Peeps into Picardy led us to believe. It surely does not carry out all the laws of architecture, but love is the sign that is written all over its workman ship, & the cleverness of the detail & of the whole construction is wonderful. We sat in the church for a long time thinking of the single minded ness & the earnestness of the soul of the builder (pages 47-48).
JULY 2 [1916]
Ruth & I bycicled in last [h]ours out to Wirwignes to see the little « home made » church which we admired so much last year. We had tea in the Boulogne Woods. Strawberries & bread & butter & were so hungry. Stayed in the church for about half an hour then returned (page 128).
Susan Mann (ed.) (2000). – The war diary of Clare Gass, 1915-1918. Montreal and London: McGill-Queen’s University Press, pages 47-8 et 128
The church at Wirwignes features in Dominique Arnaud’s Le guide du Boulonnais et de la Côte d’Opale, but is not mentioned in the « big » French tourist guides.
Arnaud D. (1988) – Le guide du Boulonnais et de la Côte d’Opale. Lyon: La Manufacture
Abbé Lecoutre in the press
Comment un curé de village – digne successeur des prêtres bâtisseurs du Moyen-Age – passa 43 ans de sa vie à agrandir, embellir et décorer son église – l’église de Wirwignes, qui est aujourd’hui l’une des plus curieuses et des plus émouvantes du pays boulonnais
How a village priest – a worthy successor to the priest-builders of the Middle Ages – spent 43 years of his life enlarging, embellishing and decorating his church – the church of Wirwignes, which today is one of the most curious and moving in the Boulonnais region
Arnaud de Corbie – Le Télégramme du Pas-de-Calais, 27 mai 1933
L’église de Wirwignes: Vieux message d’un curé de campagne, mais aussi chef d’œuvre d’art populaire
The church at Wirwignes: An old country parish priest’s message, but also a masterpiece of folk art
Dominique Arnaud – La Voix du Nord, 21 août 1981, page 3
La foi créatrice du curé de Wirwignes
The creative faith of the parish priest of Wirwignes
Nord-Matin, 1 août 1990
L’église de Wirwignes
De l’extérieur, l’église de Wirwignes ne paye pas de mine… Un édifice religieux du XIXe siècle en briques comme tant d’autres… Mais une fois passé le porche, le visiteur écarquille les yeux d’étonnement. Sous les projecteurs, les murs, les voûtes et les colonnes foisonnent de couleurs et d’ornements : peintures, mosaïques en marbre, sculptures, inscriptions pieuses…
The church in Wirwignes
From the outside, the church in Wirwignes doesn’t look like much… A 19th-century brick religious building like so many others… But once past the porch, visitors’ eyes widen in amazement. Under the spotlights, the walls, vaults and columns are bursting with colour and ornament: paintings, marble mosaics, sculptures, pious inscriptions…
La Voix du Nord, 24 juillet 2005
WIRWIGNES L’église se visite jusque fin août
Monument d’art populaire du XVe siècle, l’église Saint-Quentin est un chef d’œuvre original. Cet édifice a été décoré de l’intérieur par l’abbé Lecoutre qui a retracé ainsi ses voyages en Italie, en Terre Sainte à la façon du Facteur Cheval, mêlant le marbre et la pierre du Boulonnais dans un style oriental.
WIRWIGNES The church can be visited until the end of August
A 15th-century folk art monument, Saint-Quentin church is an original masterpiece. The interior was decorated by Abbé Lecoutre, who retraced his travels in Italy and the Holy Land in the style of Facteur Cheval, combining marble and stone from the Boulonnais region in an oriental style.
La Voix du Nord, 3 août 2017