The choir used to be separated from the nave by a chancel screen which was demolished towards the end of the 18th century.

 

Map of the Romanesque choir

The structure of the choir is extremely complex because several Romanesque arches were altered during the 1152 partial reconstruction of the choir, which had been damaged by several sieges lead by King Louis VII from 1136 onward.
Moreover because of the tower that was built in the early 13th century, the span of the arch of the first bay had to be reduced (between columns 1 and 2 and 11 and 12) while columns 1 and 12 were reinforced and became Gothic piers.

Pillars 3 and 10 are evidently different and much more recent. When new vaulting was set up over the Romanesque choir in the 14th century, these two columns had to be build to support a part of the vaulting.

The arches

The choir is enclosed by nine Romanesque arches, all semicircular, stilted and resting on monolithic columns.

Bowl-shaped capital 7and stilted arch (The engaged column and the half capital above date from the 14th century.)

These stilted arches together with flat bowl-shaped capitals are rare and in my opinion, characteristic of Anglo-Norman style: indeed very similar arches and capitals can be seen in Saint Bartholomew the Great in London and in one of the chapels of the Tower of London. See the choir of St Bartholomew the Great. photo 1 - photo 2 The similarity between Saint Bartholomew and our collegiate church is so great that it is impossible to imagine a mere coincidence. I am quite convinced that the builder(s) of the London church knew the one in Vernon. A few tiny historic elements may point to this conclusion but we have no definite evidence or record to prove the point.

Column bases

The bases of the columns are approximately 0.5 m below ground level: the ground was raised after several river floods - particularly the one in 1658 evoked by two engravings on outside pillars (See 'Outside' page / Around the church.) During some restoration work in the early 20th century, the base of a column was unearthed, showing visitors the original level as it was several centuries ago. (This base can be seen while walking around the ambulatory, column 8.)

Capitals

The church possesses three types of Romanesque capitals:

At transept crossing, two semicircular arches are the remains of the former Romanesque church. These represent a common type of capital with a standard pattern of conventionalised foliage drawing from the Corinthian capital.

the one of Saint Benoît sur Loire Abbey ( in the south-eastern centre of France, in the Loire valley): indeed Duke William asked William de Vulpiano, Abbey of Saint Benoît, to come to Normandy and found several abbeys there. Among them is Bernay (towards 1050) Abbey (about 50km from Vernon) which was a direct daughter of Saint Benoît's. It is thought that the architect in Vernon drew some of his inspiration from Bernay's (see capital 12). It is difficult to give this capital a date because it was moved from its original place to today's during the transept crossing conversion work in the 13th century. Each side is decorated with animal heads, lions' in this case, that join in the corners. It is estimated that this pattern was taken from oriental cloth by 12th century carvers. As carving it appeared in 1027 in the tower-porch f Saint Benoît sur Loire Abbey. The same pattern is found in Bernay's whence it is likely to have reached Vernon.

Capitals 6 (background) et 7 (foreground)

As early as the 10th century, there appeared abstract geometric, Anglo-Saxon (or perhaps Viking ) patterns which were to become are one of the typical features of Romanesque art. Such palm-leaf motifs can be seen in plenty of churches and particularly in Bayeux, Thaon (a small country church near Caen), Trinity Abbey in Caen or in St Hildebert's in Gournay en Bray (a small town north of Rouen)and, of course in our Collegiate church (capitals 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11). Number 8, in the same style is fairly recent, it seems, and may have taken the place of an older one that had been damaged. The structure of capital number 7 is more complex. In the lower part is a series of arcades as could be seen on Ancient sarcophagi. All the space inside the arcades is occupied by palm-leaves. Still higher, other palm-leaves curl up to the top of the capital. Such an arrangement is very exceptional in Normandy.

The upper part of the choir was largely transformed towards the end of the 14th century: we know about the Canons taking legal action against a stone masson, Jehan Autabour, in 1380 "because of the choir of the church about which a deal had been made with the said master Jehan to destroy the old stonework of the choir vaults and rebuild... And the said work was not carried out as the deal provided for." The apse now has an 8-ribbed vault: its ribs rest on corbels decorated with small angels at one end and they lead to a pendant keystone at the other end. The half circle in which the columns are arranged is closed in the upper part by blind panels with cut-off corners. The central panel is recessed out of the wall by means of a basket handle arch. As to windows, they are Late Gothic but the pattern of the mouchettes is somewhat weak.