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Origin and history

The Priory of Vauville, also known as Priory Saint-Hermël, is a former Benedictine monastery founded in the 12th century by Richard de Vauville. The monks, coming from Cerisy-la-Forêt, settled there and developed a religious ensemble including a chapel still visible today. This site, located 750 meters north of the village of Vauville (now part of the commune of La Hague), dominates the moors of the Manche department in Normandy.

After the French Revolution, the priory was transformed into a farm and gradually fell into ruin. During the Second World War, German troops requisitioned the site, dismantling the roofs and the chapel bell, the latter remaining unobtainable after the war. The current buildings, mostly dating from the 15th century, were restored after-1944, while the chapel – classified as a historical monument in 1975 – retains the arms of the Vauville family on its vault key.

The priory played a local spiritual and economic role: the priors were patrons of the churches of Biville, Digulleville and Éculleville thanks to a donation of 1163 by Bishop Richard de Bohon. Now privately owned, the site was also immortalized by painter Jean-François Millet. Its history reflects the religious, political and military upheavals that marked Normandy from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era.

The chapel, the only protected element, illustrates Romanesque architecture with its merlets and its listed pal, heraldic symbols of the founders. The priory, purchased by the state as part of the Marshall Plan before being transferred to the Fields, also reflects post-war reconstruction efforts. Its present state, between ruins and restorations, makes it a place full of memory, at the crossroads of monastic, agricultural and artistic heritages.

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