Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Church of Notre-Dame de Brécy, also known as the Church of Sainte-Anne de Brécy, dates from the 13th and 14th centuries and is located in Saint-Gabriel-Brécy, Calvados. Private property since the French Revolution, it is no longer used for religious offices. Its history is closely linked to that of the castle of Brécy, of which it is attached. Jacques Le Bas, builder of the castle portal, has built a door for direct access to the church. Another Jacques Le Bas was parish priest from 1662 to 1717, and the last parish priest of Brécy served from 1751 until the closure of the registers in 1792.

After the Revolution, the church became an annex of Saint-Gabriel by the concordat of 1802. It was emptied of its furniture in 1811 and gradually fell into ruins: the roof of the tower collapsed in 1886, followed by that of the nave a few years later. Despite a classification as historical monuments in 1929, it was considered "no interest and little old" by A. de Caumont. Actress Rachel Boyer, owner of the castle since 1912, undertook repairs, including the roof, and cleaned the shrubs infiltrated into the walls.

In 1955, Jacques de Lacretelle and his wife bought the property and saw the building's disrepair. Restoration works are carried out by the academician and then by Didier Wirth, owner since 1992. The church, oriented to the northeast, features an architecture marked by foothills, a stone porch with three broken arch openings, and a nave illuminated by full-fine windows. It houses notable graves, including that of Simon-Pierre Le Vaillant, lord of Brécy, and that of the Lacretelle.

The choir, composed of three spans, is adorned with full-angle windows and a vault supported by cross-sections of warheads. The tower, flanked by a stair turret, houses a house of bells illuminated by broken arch windows. Despite the disappearance of some elements such as the panellings and the altar with torso columns, the church remains an architectural and historical testimony of the region, preserved thanks to successive restorations.

External links