Welcome to the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives

The Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives was founded in the 11th century. A thousand years later, its abbey church, adjoining conventual buildings, cloister courtyard, and magnificent chapter house make it one of the most complete examples of monastic architecture in Normandy. The first abbey church dates from the 11th century. In 1011, upon the death of her husband, the Count of Eu, Countess Lesceline transformed her recently built castle into a monastery and established a community of nuns there. Thirty years later, facing harassment, they were transferred to Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux and replaced by Benedictine monks from Rouen. The Countess then entrusted the future of her abbey to Abbot Ainard, who expanded the monastery and built the first abbey church. The consecration in 1067, in the presence of William, Duke of Normandy and King of England, the Countess's great-nephew, marked the end of construction. The abbey, under his patronage, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Virtually nothing remained of the original Romanesque church, destroyed in 1106 by fire set by Henry I Beauclerc, except for a few elements at the crossing. The church was rebuilt in 1108. It closely resembled the proportions and location of the original building. The construction of this new Gothic edifice lasted over a century. The nave and choir rise in three levels: the large, slightly pointed arches, surmounted by a triforium and then by clerestory windows. The balance of volumes between horizontality and verticality is achieved through engaged columns that rise from their capitals to the springing of the vaults, to which the stringcourses corresponding perpendicularly mark the different levels. Initially covered with an exposed timber frame, the nave features ribbed vaults dating from the 13th century. At the crossing, the lantern tower is a characteristic feature of Norman Gothic architecture. It acts as a light well in the area where Mass was sung. Originally taller, it now has only two stories and was reinforced at the corners in the 18th century. The interplay of light and shadow in the sanctuary enhances the spatial unity of the building. The five beautiful arcades of the apse and their opening onto the ambulatory with radiating chapels accentuate its depth. During the Hundred Years' War, the abbey resumed its role as a military fortress and was subsequently heavily damaged. In 1459, it fell under the commendatory system and descended into a period of great moral disarray. During the Wars of Religion, Protestants ransacked the abbey church, burned the charters, the relics of Saint Wambert, and desecrated the tomb of Lesceline. During this turbulent period, a commendatory abbot, Jacques de Silly, rebuilt the ravaged structure. He undertook major works from 1509 to 1527: raising the clerestory windows and the nave vaults, where his coat of arms can be seen, reinforcing the exterior walls with flying buttresses, and consolidating the lantern tower. The restoration of the church preserved the architectural harmony of the 13th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the radiating chapels were remodeled. In 1666, Georges Dunot was appointed commendatory abbot. To revive the abbey, he called upon the monks of the Saint-Maur Reform from the Abbey of Saint-Étienne in Caen. The Maurists reinstated religious observance and restored the conventual buildings. In the church, the choir was repaved and a new altar was installed. Bells were recast. In 1691, the vaults, which were in danger of collapsing, were also restored. Individual cells were created in the south wing of the conventual buildings for the monks who had previously slept in a dormitory. A new refectory was also built. From then on, the abbey church remained virtually unchanged, except after the conventual buildings were divided into lots and sold as national property, and its transformation into a parish church following the French Revolution. By gradually buying back the various lots from private individuals since the end of the 20th century, the town has undertaken a plan to restore the convent buildings, so that the former abbey can once again participate in the development of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives.