Men's Abbey

This monument of Norman art, upon which England depends.

"When Saint-Étienne falls, the kingdom of England will perish," Robert Wace asserted in the 12th century.

Imagine, then, the terror when...
Beset by the Franco-English rivalries of the Hundred Years' War, sacked by insurgents during the Wars of Religion, surrounded by the bombings of the summer of 1944...

Was it the fear that the poet's prediction would come true? Or the hand of God, which has always preserved Saint-Étienne?

Come in! The church, now a parish church, will captivate you with the purity of its lines and the nobility of its semicircular arches. A masterpiece of Norman Romanesque architecture, see how harmoniously the extension of a Gothic choir blends into it. As for the cloister buildings, from the Tuscan arcades of the cloister to the beautiful suites of paneled salons, let them tell you the stories that, since their reconstruction in the 18th century, transformed them into an Imperial Lycée and then a Town Hall. And passing by the former chapter house, learn that it has become a wedding hall. A remarkable destiny indeed for this monastery founded on the very reason of the Conqueror's marriage!