Ancienne abbaye Saint-Martin

English translation

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History

Abbey founded in the 6th century by Benedictine monks from the abbey of Saint-Evroult. Nothing remains of this first monastery, destroyed by Norman invasions. The abbey was reborn in the 11th century, following the monastic reform. Of the Romanesque church, completed around that time, there remain a round-arched opening and a series of arcatures on the upper storey. In the 13th century, the abbey was at its zenith. Saint-Louis stayed there in 1256 and presented it with lands. In 1359, the English took refuge there. Assailed and taken by Du Guesclin, the abbey was mutilated. In 1562, it was pillaged by the bands of Admiral Coligny. Gabriel de Montgommery, converted to Protestantism, set fire to the place: the convent, the nave and the bell tower were destroyed. With the Catholic reform, the abbey experienced a second resurrection. In 1636, the Saint-Maur reform was introduced there. At this time the present building was constructed. To this period succeeded the religious decline of the 18th century. At the Revolution, Richard Lenoir installed his spinning mill there. In the mid-19th century, after the failure of the spinning mill, the bishop of Sées installed the diocesan seminary there. The 11th-century church was then replaced by the present one, in neo-Renaissance style.