Montivilliers Abbey

[1] On 13 January 1035, at a meeting held in Fécamp,[2] Robert I, Duke of Normandy, granted it autonomy as a nunnery once again, for the benefit of his aunt Beatrice.

In the 15th century, the parish of Saint-Sauveur, which had been granted the first seven bays of the nave of the abbey church, had the north side knocked down so as to double its size with a large Gothic extension.

[3] The abbey was suppressed during the French Revolution and the nuns were expelled in 1792, after which the buildings underwent an intense and varied occupation (offices, prison, garrison, shops, stables, etc.)

The second phase, carried out from 1997 to 2000, enabled the restoration of the spaces to their original architecture, the creation of the "Cœur d'Abbaye" show trail and the fitting out of a room for temporary exhibitions in the Gothic refectory.

The arms of the transept are covered with rib vaults of archaic style, without keys, separated by a band decorated with chevrons (bâtons brisés).

The semicircular arch that opened onto the southern apse chapel shows twenty keystones carved with anecdotal scenes or stylised animals.

The choir, three bays deep and much modified in the 17th century, still reveals its primitive Romanesque structure, especially in the high columns that marked the start of the semicircle of the apse.

In 1811, the town set up a local secondary school there, which later became an Ecole primaire supérieure et professionnelle from 1856 to 1941, then a college from 1941 to 1954 and finally a lycée annexe until 1969.