Sentiers du Patrimoine ®
Génicourt
Emprunter à nouveau la sente de la mine d’or, repasser le pont de l’Arche et continuer tout droit jusqu’au Christ.
Prochain point : lat : 49.09658, long. 2.06128
This private chapel was erected in 1856for the Hamot family. It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows : this consecration refers to the Virgin Mary’s miracle of snow falling down on a hill in Rome in the middle of August. The chapel adopts the Romanesque revival style. The medieval architectural stylewas reinterpreted in the spirit of the 19th century. The Romanesque inspiration can be seen in the bay windows and in the entrance gate with round arches called semicircular arches, but also in the buttresses along the nave. The West facade holdsa bell tower wall in the upper part : the bell was installed to be seen by everyone,within a vertical device perpendicular to the wall, not that common in the French Vexin.
The Gérocourt hamlet used to be a parish of its own in the Middle Ages and therefore had its own church. Some 30 parishioners would gather there in the 13th century. The church was along the path ‘Chemin de la Mine d’or’and was still indicated on the Napoleonic land registerof 1819. When Gérocourt was linked to Génicourt in 1840, the church and churchyard were destroyed, probably because not being in use anymore. This did not however put a stop to the erection a few years later of the chapel Notre-Dame des Neiges who sort of replaced the former parish building. After the Hamot family it then belonged to the farming family Bénard who had a vault put up there. The Bénard family owned the sheepfold located at number 8 of the street bearing the same name. The chapel was in the end bought by the council in 1993 and is still in its possession.
