ABBEY OF THE HOLY TRINITY
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Historic abbey church with a remarkable nave and the relic of the Precious Blood, a major pilgrimage site in Fécamp.
The abbey of Fécamp was founded around the relic of the Precious Blood in 658 by Waning (or Waneng), Count of Caux, with the help of the Bishop of Rouen, Saint Ouen, and Wandrille (founder of the abbey of the same name). The community grew rapidly, with up to 300 nuns living according to the rule of Saint Benedict. In May 841, the site was sacked by Vikings and some of the residents massacred. Some fled, taking with them the relics of Saint Waning. In the 10th century, the Dukes of Normandy decided to make Fécamp their capital. Guillaume dit Longue Épée built a palace near the ruins of the monastery. Richard I built a new church of the Trinity, consecrated in 990 by Robert le Danois, Archbishop of Rouen. In 1001, Richard II of Normandy transformed the collegiate church into a Benedictine men’s abbey, then William of Volpiano brought in Cluniac monks, transforming the site into a hotbed of intellectual and artistic renaissance. The site was dispersed during the French Revolution: an inventory of the library records 4,880 volumes. The abbey was listed as a Monument Historique in 1840. Stroll up the 127-metre-long nave (as long as Notre-Dame-de-Paris) to discover its treasures: a lantern tower typical of Norman Gothic, Romanesque chapels, the tombs of Richard I and Richard II, not forgetting the astronomical clock dating from 1667, which indicates the hours as well as the tides.
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