NOTRE DAME CHURCH

At the end of a dead-end, in the middle of the cemetery, this 19th-century church is located near the remains of the former Notre-Dame Abbey founded in 1143 by Gilbert de Corneville, now a private property and a historical monument. Ravaged by a fire in 1287, it was rebuilt but gradually ruined by the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of Religion. In the 17th century, the site experienced a new boom with the installation of a community of reformed canons of the Congregation of France, which undertook to rebuild and extend the buildings. It was then the only Genovese abbey in Upper Normandy. Sold as a national property following the Revolution, the abbey was partly dismantled, with the destruction of the abbey church, located as an extension of the current church. Part of the monastic wings from the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century still remain around the cloister. Built of bricks and limestone, the south wing housed the cellars, the refectory and the dormitories. Although renovated in the 19th century, this building has retained its straight staircase, cloister gallery and original kitchen. The walls of the abbey’s enclosures have survived and show its former hold.