Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Saint-Martin de Nonant Church is a Catholic building located in the department of Calvados, in the commune of Nonant, Normandy. It is located precisely on the left bank of the Seulles River. Its construction spans several centuries, with a nave dating from the twelfth century, a choir of the thirteenth, and chapels as well as a tower added to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Later changes in the 18th and 19th centuries also marked its architectural history.

The church porch, decorated with remarkable bird sculptures and mouldings, is a key part of its heritage. Arcisse de Caumont, 19th-century historian, stressed the importance of preserving these decorations, opposing a project to transform the porch into a chapel that would have resulted in the destruction of mouldings. His interventions have kept these elements, now protected. The church was listed as historical monuments on 13 February 1975.

The building features a west tower with a built roof and an entrance porch to the south. Among its architectural features are warhead windows on the north face of the nave, dated the 16th century. Historically, the bishop of Lisieux held the patronage of this church, stressing its religious importance in the region.

The available sources, including the works of Arcisse de Caumont in his monumental Statistique du Calvados (1857), provide precise details of the construction periods and stylistic characteristics of the church. Today, the monument belongs to the municipality of Nonant and remains a testimony of the architectural and religious evolutions of medieval and modern Normandy.

External links