Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame de Grangues, located in Calvados in Normandy, is a Catholic building whose construction begins in the 12th century, but whose essential (chœur and triumphal arch) is realized in the 13th century. The walls of the nave were taken over in the 15th century, and modifications took place until the 18th century, such as the funerary liter painted around 1720. The clay soil has caused structural disorders, requiring recurrent work, including emergency reinforcement of the triumphal arc in 1989.

The church, in Romanesque style with Gothic elements, features an ogival portal, a straight bedside, and a combed bell tower covered with slates since the 19th century. Inside, there is a 17th-century beam of glory, statues (including a 17th-century Virgin with the Child and a mid-17th-century Saint Roch), and a 1693 classified painting depicting Christ and Saint Véronique. The furniture also includes an Assumption of the Virgin (1727) classified in 1993.

Classified as a Historic Monument in 1926, the church benefits from a safeguard association created in 1988. Major work took place in 1991-92, and recent restorations (2022) concerned the crosses of the adjacent cemetery. A source dedicated to Saint Roch, close to the building, recalls the local cult against epidemics. The lord of Grangues once called him a servant, emphasizing his seigneurial anchor.

The stained glass windows, such as that of 1910 illustrating Saint Roch and his dog, and the carved modillons (human heads, foliage) on the southern facade, bear witness to a varied artistic heritage. The building, a communal property, remains a place of worship and memory, marked by centuries of Norman history.

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