Le transept et la nef de la collégiale Saint-Quiriace de Provins

The construction of Saint-Quiriace at Provins stopped around 1170-1180, after the raising of the choir ; the transept and two bays of the nave were built in the thirteenth Century. The church remained unfinished until the sixteenth Century when the vaulting of the nave was completed along with the west façade. The dating of the campaign undertaken in the thirteenth Century remains controversial, as the only known source is difficult to interpret. Nonetheless, on ccan make a few hypotheses based on an examination of economic and political aspects and of the architectural context. The good relations between the canons and the counts of Champagne, the development of the fairs and cloth industry, and the increasing number of parishioners provide conditions that would have favored a new building campaign, probably around 1238 or slightly later, with the likelihood of more intense activity between 1247 and 1258, the date when the chapter was exeommunicated.