Notre-Dame Abbey

A beautiful lady who shone brightly upon Anglo-Norman Christendom.
Heir to an illustrious family, William Talvas of Bellême felt compelled to consolidate his prestige and secure his future by founding an abbey. Thus, in 1017, he offered a beautiful plot of land to the Benedictine monks.
A thousand years passed. The abbey lost its cloister buildings and the Romanesque nave of its abbey church. But not its Gothic choir, nor its transept arms, now used for parish services.

This church... A grand lady of yesteryear, somewhat forgotten in her corner of the countryside. Mérimée, as celebrated a writer as he was a brilliant Inspector General of Historical Monuments, disdained it. An injustice fortunately rectified since. For the abbey church possesses the grandeur of noble dowagers who remember their past radiating light, haloed by pious sentiments.

Behold its imposing presence, as it raises its crossing tower above the rooftops of the town and displays its beautiful robe of granite and sandstone in the daylight. Beyond the porch, it will captivate you with its 17th-century altarpieces, its early medieval statuary, and its wonderfully animated capitals, imbued with the imagination of Anglo-Norman Romanesque sculptors.