Tonnerre Patrimoine

The Church of Saint Peter

The Transept

The crossing of the transept and the nave is marked by four large pillars made up of brunches of small narrow columns. Their bases are notable for the exquisitely decorated claw-feet, a fantasy of leaves, flowers, grapes, griffons, eagles and charming heads of cherubs.
The vault is covered in radiating latticework (stellar and “tierceron” vaults) around a large circle, which is not, as one might expect, a hole for a bell rope. Apparently, there was once a bell tower above the central crossing, which appears in a drawing of 1609.
The arms of the transept are themselves transected by the lateral aisles of the church, with arched openings. Over the archways are cornices that divide the elevation in two, above which there are two unequal-sized arches in the wall.
On the northern arm of the transept, are painted the names of saints most venerated by the parish. Included among the names is that of Marguerite de Bourgogne, queen of Jerusalem and founder of the Hospice of Tonnerre. The named saints are represented in the upper windows that illuminate the transept. Those stained-glass windows were made by the Vermonet workshop of Reims between 1884 and 1888.
On the southern arm of the transept, there is a gallery passageway above the main entrance, which allows access to the outside onto the gallery of the south façade.