In 875 Charles the Bald gave Tournus to a community of monks who came to the locality with the relics of Saint Philibert.
Noirmoutier was the location of the first recorded Viking raid on continental Europe, when raiders attacked the monastery in 799.
Roman Catholic worship resumed after the Concordat of 1801 formally ended the period of dechristianisation.
The church is set in a fortified enclosure, and defence was evidently a factor in the design of the building.
[2] Like others on the list, the building required conservation work which it received under the direction of the preservationist architect Charles-Auguste Questel.