Abbatiale de la Sainte-Trinité de Lessay

Lessay

A baron of the Cotentin, Turstin Haldup, lord of La Haye-du-Puits, and his wife Emma founded the abbey between 1056 and 1064, in the years when William the Bastard was completing the subjection of Lower Normandy; their son Eudes au Capel, seneschal of the duke, confirmed the foundation, and the first monks came from Le Bec, with their abbot Roger. When Eudes died, in 1098, he was buried in the choir, and it was at that moment, or shortly before, that this choir received vaults of a new type, carried on crossed ribs: the rib vaults of Lessay count among the oldest in the Anglo-Norman world, contemporary with those of Durham, and announce, in a vessel still wholly Romanesque, what would become the Gothic. The church was dedicated in 1178 by the archbishop of Rouen, Rotrou. What one sees, however, is not what Rotrou blessed: on 11 July 1944, the building, mined, collapsed; the stones were sorted, numbered, put back, and from 1945 to 1957 the architect Yves-Marie Froidevaux rebuilt the abbey church identically, with its own materials, adding nothing — a project held up as exemplary; the church was returned to worship in 1958. The result is a bright, bare church, where the slightest voice can be heard, between two heathland paths.

Wikipédia — Abbaye Sainte-Trinité de Lessay ↗

Getting there : On the D 900 between Coutances and La Haye-du-Puits, or by the D 2 from Périers; parking on the square. The abbey church is open every day, from 9 am to 7 pm, with automatic doors, and entry is free; guided tours are offered during the school holidays. The 18th-century conventual buildings are private. The Heures musicales festival gives concerts there every summer, and the Sainte-Croix fair invades the heath every September. Half an hour is enough, but the acoustics invite you to stay.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound