Abbey of Saint Pierre sur Dives

A thousand years after Countess Lesceline... Was it the surge of fervor following the year 1000 that helped her overcome her grief? Countess Lesceline founded a Benedictine community on the estate on the banks of the Dives River, bequeathed to her by her husband. But the coldness of the neighbors prevailed, and the nuns moved to other lands, leaving the monks to settle in their house.

Not that the local people were ungrateful. It is even said that they later helped rebuild the monastery. What is most well known is their recent commitment to restoring their abbey, which was dismantled during the Revolution.

Thus, Lesceline's work has endured through the millennium. The church reflects this long history, a synthesis of architectural and ornamental styles: Gothic arcades, stalls stamped with Italian Renaissance influences, a 17th-century high altar... A meridian line runs through it which, in the midday light, indicates the zodiac sign of the day, reminding you that God is Eternity, reigning over human time.

Then, in the chapter house, restored to its 13th-century splendor, you will remember, as the monks did... Something of them remains here, something more than a memory.