Its name is linked to a fountain known as Sainte-Anne which is perpetuated today by the chapel dedicated to her near the village.
Of Romanesque origin, as evidenced by certain bays, its original plan is similar to that of the neighboring churches. Consisting until 1879 of a single vessel supported by buttresses and extended by a semicircular apse, the church of Fontaine-Simon was built with local stones: flint, grisons and pudding.
The building is lit by bays which were the subject of a major alteration in the second half of the 19th century. The southern part of the church was thus openworked with pointed arch bays with a trefoil network, while the openings in the northern part were refreshed and their embrasures widened.
Sand pits forming a cornice, visible from the outside, crown the original walls of the sanctuary. The bell tower, built at the base on a square plan, rises outside the roof on an octagonal plan pierced with triangular louvers extended by a tapered spire.
In 1879, the generosity of the Reverseaux family contributed greatly to the construction, to the south of the nave, of the Sainte-Anne chapel, as evidenced by an epigraph engraved on a framing stone.
In the 19th century, the church was also enlarged in its western part by an overhang. Covered with a hipped roof, this part of the building did not constitute a chapter but simply an extension of the nave.
On each side of the building, we can still notice the location of three small, low, semi-circular walled doors.
The little bell
On the register signed by the priest Brunet we note: On July 14, 1760 a small bell was blessed under the invocation of Saint-Marguerite and Saint-Madeleine, named by Dame Marguerite Michelle Madeleine de Barville, wife of Lord Michel Jean de Suhard , squire, sieur de Grandmont, sieur de la Bretonnière, Montégu and Le Mesnil and other places"
Translated by Google •
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