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Saint-Gilles Church

Neglected by the local historians who devote to it few lines and prefer Notre-Dame, Saint-Basile or Saint-Martin day to it, the Saint-Gilles church is forsaked.
However it isn't lacking in charm, drawing up its roman bell-tower with double bâtière above a place which was one of the most active markets of Beauce. The nave in cradle probably dates from XI th or XII th century.
The chorus and the sides were completed only in XVI th century. The external walls, relatively low, are decorated with gargoyle easy to contemplate.
Inside, the painted decoration of the vault dates from XVI th century.
Coated paint and masked, it was rediscovery following bombardments of 1944 which damaged part of the church.
Saint-Gilles is also remarkable by his many tombstones engraved for the rich person families of merchants and landlords who dominated this parish in XVI th and XVII th centuries.
The epitaphs are a moving testimony of the originality of this hard district and tradesman whose prosperity was due to the trade of the grains.

The Vault of the Cordeliers Convent
The vault of Cordeliers was built in XIII th century, during Saint-François, life founder of the Order. Its installation in the city was decided by the Queen Blanche de Castille, Saint-Louis' mother.
The arched vault date of this period. It is dedicated to Saint-Jean Batiste. Burned during the wars of religion, in 1567, rebuilt in 1645, the convent was ruined with the Revolution, then sold on September 3, 1792.
After the Revolution, the old buildings of the convent were repurchased by the congregation of Notre-Dame to install there a boarding school until the years 1920.
This congregation of Notre-Dame founded by Fourier de Mattaincourt, had settled in Etampes in 1630, in a contiguous building with the Cordeliers convent. The congregation of Note-Dame had a vast ground going to the walls of the city and the Tower of the Wolf.