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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Saint-Hilaire church of Tillières-sur-Avre, built in the 11th century under William the Stone Conqueror to replace a 10th-century wooden sanctuary, embodies the post-Treaty Norman reconstruction of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911). Rollon, the first Duke of Normandy, restored the churches destroyed during the Viking raids after his conversion. The region, a border area tense between the Duchy and the Capetian domain, sees Tillières-sur-Avre reinforced in stone by Richard II Coeur de Lion to resist conflicts with Louis VII, king of France.

In the 13th century, the church underwent Gothic changes during the reigns of Philip Augustus, Louis VIII and Saint Louis, while Normandy became French. The stained glass windows, marked by the yellow of Evreux (innovative pigment from local wheat seeds) and medieval blues, reflect the favourite colours of the Middle Ages according to Michel Pastoureau. The Renaissance altarpiece, centered on a once polychrome Virgin Child, houses a miraculous statue linked to Crespin, Norman lord of the 13th century, symbolizing the transition between medieval polychromy and modern bleaching.

Ranked a historical monument in 1862, the church bears traces of controversial restorations of the 19th century, where Renaissance corbellations (XVI century) were partially erased. Its wall-pignon, redesigned several times, illustrates the evolution of heritage practices, between conservation and stylistic reinterpretation. The building, a communal property, remains a testimony of Norman geopolitical tensions and regional sacred art, between Romanesque, Gothic and reborn heritage.

The interior architecture thus combines defensive elements (stone of the eleventh century), liturgical (glasses of the thirteenth) and artistic (Italianist altarpiece), while its exterior, marked by successive renovations, reflects the stakes of preservation over the centuries. The legend of the miraculous Virgin, associated with Crespin, strengthens its anchor in local history and medieval beliefs.

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