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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Saint-Pierre de Carville church, located in Darnétal in the Rouen agglomeration, is a parish church of flamboyant Gothic architecture, built in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It replaces a first church of the 12th century and bears witness to the prosperity of the medieval village of Dernestal. Its homogenous style, close to the creations of Rouennais sculptor Roulland Le Roux, is inspired by the Butter Tower of Notre-Dame de Rouen Cathedral. The bell tower, finely carved, is now separated from the nave following a fire in 1562 during the Wars of Religion, when the Huguenots burned the church during the siege of Rouen.

Partial reconstruction after the fire led to the suppression of the three western spans of the nave, leaving the tower isolated, known as the "Henri IV Tower". The latter, classified as a historic monument in 1875, still bears traces of its original junction with the building. The church, closed to worship since 2005 due to infiltrations, was registered in 2011 and filed in full in 2015. Its interior, sober and balanced, houses a choir decorated with 16th century stained glass windows and false marble paintings, as well as seven modern stained glass windows evoking the life of Jesus, created after the cartons of Georges Mirianon.

The main façade, in the Roman style, contrasts with the rest of the Gothic building. It was later added to the location where the nave originally extended to the hatch tower. The church thus illustrates the architectural transformations and historical vicissitudes suffered by Norman religious monuments between the late Middle Ages and the modern era. Its present state calls for a restoration to preserve this emblematic heritage of the Seine-Maritime.

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