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Origin and history

The Church of St.Martin of Caen found its origins in the 7th century, with the foundation of a place of worship dedicated to Martin de Tours on a site potentially linked to an ancient pagan necropolis near the Roman Way. Excavations of the 1960s revealed a pre-Roman church surrounded by a cemetery of the Upper Middle Ages, with up to 200 sarcophagus. This first building, without collateral, was oriented north-northwest and had a bell tower wall.

In the 12th century, a Romanesque church replaced the pre-Roman building and was rebuilt in Gothic style in the 15th century. The parish, active and nicknamed Saint-Martin-de-la-Tannerie because of the tanners installed on the banks of the Odon, was crossed by the road to Brittany and Bessin. A collateral nave and a tower tower (added in 1736) modify its architecture over the centuries. His cemetery, used until the 18th century, was transferred in 1784-1785 to the Quatre-Nations.

Disused in 1791 during the reduction of the Kenyan parishes, the church was sold as a national property in 1796 and destroyed in 1798. Its remains, listed as historical monuments in 1929, include elements of flat-side Gothic naves and Romanesque capitals exhumed in the 19th century. The site, which was excavated in 1964, also reveals traces of the walls of Bourg-l'Abbé, a medieval suburb of Caen.

The history of the church is linked to the Abbey of the Ladies, which obtained the patronage in the 11th century after an exchange with Mathilde of Flanders, although the bishops of Bayeux retained part of the tithes. Part of the parish is also detached to form the parish of Saint-Nicolas, under the control of the Abbey of Men. The young Bernardin de Saint-Pierre stayed there as a boarder at the presbytery.

Archaeological excavations confirmed the importance of the site, with graves dating from the 7th century and major architectural changes between the 12th and 15th centuries. Today, the remains of the church, located 42-44 rue Saint-Martin, bear witness to its central role in the religious and social life of Caen, from the Middle Ages to its revolutionary destruction.

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