Eglise

The church of Saint-Maurice in Dracy-lès-Couches was rebuilt around 1715. Before 1789, Dracy and Saint-Maurice had a common church and cemetery. Like much of the village, the church is built into the rock.
The first building, undertaken by Count Pierre de Berbis in 1715, was dedicated to Saint-Claude. It was renamed Saint-Maurice in 1826 when the Marquis de Grammont built the nave, to which wooden side aisles were later added. In 1837, the present bell tower was added by the Count of Villers-la-Faye. In 1869, the Marquis de Laubespin had the aisles of the nave enlarged to form the present side aisles, replacing the wooden pillars supporting the vault with sandstone columns with moulded capitals. In 1875, a complete embellishment was carried out by an Italian painter thanks to the Marquise de Laubespin. Five transformations were made in the space of a century and a half.
When you enter the church, you'll be amazed by the 19th century paintings. Especially the large blue vault, restored in 2000. According to Canon Grivot, this is one of the few churches in Burgundy to have preserved its paintings from the late 19th century, making it a little gem of sacred art, unsuspected from the outside.
In the choir: the vault is decorated with a medallion featuring the blond-haired, blue-eyed Christ (a typical 19th-century representation). He is surrounded by the four evangelists:
- St Matthew with a (winged) man, as his Gospel begins with the genealogy of Christ.
- St Mark with a lion, evoking the desert where John the Baptist preached.
- St Luke with a bull, recalling the sacrifices in the Temple, where the third Gospel begins and ends.
- St John with an eagle because of the sublime elevation of his prologue "In the beginning was the Word...". (The eagle is said to be the bird that flies highest in the sky and the only one that can look the sun in the face).
The stained glass windows in the nave, treated almost in grisaille, all come from the same workshop: Porcherot, located in Dijon.

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