Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The priory of the Magdeleine de Réno, located 1 km west of Saint-Victor-de-Reno (comune of Longny les Villages, Orne), was initially a priory of the order of Grandmont before taking up, before the Revolution, the Benedictine Abbey of Thiron, founded in 1109. Mentioned in 1147, it disappeared when the national goods were sold during the Revolution, its lands and buildings being dispersed. The chapel, the heart of the priory, was preserved.

The chapel, built in the 4th quarter of the 13th century and restored in the 15th century, features a simple nave and a round apse choir. From the Romanesque era remain the western porch, northern windows and traces of bays on the abside. The structure of the 15th century, redone with punches and apparent entries, bears witness to medieval transformations. Ranked a historic monument in 1983, it embodies the great and Benedictine architectural heritage of the region.

The priory illustrates Norman monastic history, linked to the major religious orders of the Middle Ages. Its successive connection to the Grandmontans and then to the Benedictines of Thiron reflects the spiritual and political evolutions of Normandy, between local influence and abbatial networks. The disappearance of the priory at the Revolution marks, as for many religious establishments, the brutal break with the Old Regime.

External links