La Trinité Abbey

La Trinité Abbey

La Trinité Abbey has stood above Vendôme since 1032, when it was founded by Geoffroy Martel, Count of Anjou. Two ages answer each other in the building: the twelfth-century Romanesque bell tower, standing apart in front of the church, and the flamboyant west front of the early sixteenth century, one of the most finely worked in the Loir valley. On the river side, the chevet and its radiating chapels close the view.

Architectural lighting for the abbey church and its chevet, preceded by on-site trials on the flamboyant portal: floodlights laid on the ground, angles and colour temperatures checked at full scale before the final installation. That stage takes place at night, at full size, and shows what no simulation can — how the stone returns light, the real depth of the mouldings, the shadow each gable throws.

The chevet is held in a warm, continuous value that follows the curve of the chapels, with buttresses and roofs left darker, so the mass reads as one from the foot of the building. The portal is treated close to, in grazing light, so that the statues and the stone tracery keep their relief. The abbey church also serves as a backdrop for the town’s night-time events: the installation was designed to live alongside those temporary settings rather than compete with them.