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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Church of the Trinity of Angers came into being in 1028, when Foulque Nerra and his wife Hildegarde founded Notre-Dame-de-la-Charité Abbey (future Ronceray). From the 11th century, the crowd of parishioners pushed the abbesses to build a dedicated church, built near the abbey. The present building, rebuilt between 1140 and 1180, marks the climax of the "first Gothic Angelvin", with a unique nave with curved vaults and distinct keys, including a remarkable "suspension vault".

In the 16th century, the architect Jean de l'Espine raised the bell tower of a Renaissance lantern (1540), while major transformations took place in the 19th century under Charles Joly-Leterme (1864-1880). The latter imposes a neo-Roman style, adds a south porch, restores the transept and incorporates the crypt of the ancient abbey. The stained glass windows, destroyed during the Second World War, were replaced by modern creations or 19th-century works, such as those of Thierry Jr (1865-1867).

Ranked as early as 1840 among the first French historical monuments, the church houses remarkable furniture: a polychrome high altar of 1873 with rare trinitarian motifs, a 19th-century cabinetwork pulpit decorated with St.Georges, and a 15th-century medieval pieta, altered by the floods. His organ, built by Daublaine and Callinet in 1840 and modified in the 20th century, was later classified in 1997. Successive restorations, especially after 1945, preserved this major witness of the Angeline religious heritage.

The Doutre district, where the church rises, was historically an artisanal and religious suburbs, marked by the presence of the Ronceray Abbey. The building, facing southeast, has played a central role in parish life since the Middle Ages, surviving the fires (1088), the Revolution, and the bombings of the twentieth century. Its hybrid architecture, blending Romanesque, Gothic and neo-medieval elements, reflects almost a millennium of local history.

The abbesses of the Ronceray, original sponsors, shaped his destiny until the Revolution. In the 19th century, the state and the city of Angers financed its restoration, while local craftsmen — such as the Thierry glassmakers or the Saint Joseph workshop — left their mark on it. Today, the church remains an active place of worship and a symbol of the Ligurian heritage, open to the public and protected by the commune.

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