Collegiate Church of Ecouis

The collegiate church of Écouis, dating from the 14th century, is filled with masterpieces of religious art, including its statuary. At the dawn of the 14th century, the town of Écouis, situated on an important thoroughfare, was active and prosperous: it held several fairs and a market. Its parish church, "Saint Aubin," was under the patronage of the Abbey of Bec-Hellouin. King Philip IV, known as Philip the Fair (1285-1314), appointed as his Minister of Finance the wealthy and powerful Enguerrand de Marigny , born in Lyons-la-Forêt, Lord of Mainneville and Plessis. He had already endowed his estate of Écouis with a hospital, one building of which still exists (now a retirement home). To house the College of twelve canons he had established, he decided to replace the church with a collegiate church, which was built in three years, from 1310 to 1313. The speed with which the work was carried out explains the unity of the whole, the restraint of the ornamentation, and the absence of any excess in the monument, whose somewhat austere beauty stems from the purity of its lines and the harmony of its proportions. Among its canons was Vincent de Paul in 1615.