An Apse Mosaic of the Early 9th Century

Here is an interesting thing I happened to stumble across today, a little oratory in the town of Germigny-des-Prés, about 76 miles directly south of Paris. It was built in 806 as part of a large palace complex by Theodulf (750/60 - 821), a Spaniard who served as bishop of the nearby city of Orléans for about 20 years, (798 ca. - 818), and was one of the leading literary figures of the Carolingian Renaissance. No other part of the palace survives; the oratory is of particular interest because it still preserves the original apsidal mosaic, the only example of a mosaic from its period still preserved in situ. It depicts two angels hovering over the Ark of the Covenant. There was a lot of cultural exchange between the court of Charlemagne and that of Byzantium, and the influence of Byzantine art is very evident here.

Unfortunately, very little remains of the mosaic work in the arches underneath the apse. 

The oratory was originally built on a Greek-cross plan, but a nave was added to it on the west side in the later 15th or early 16th century, and then extended in the 19th, with the further addition of the bell-tower over the façade.

The floorplan and various cutaway views.

None of the decoration in the nave has been preserved either.

The baptismal font from the Romanesque period.