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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Notre-Dame-du-Pré Abbey in Valmont, originally called Sainte-Marie de Valmont, is a Benedictine abbey founded in 1169 by Nicolas d'Estouteville, local lord. It is entrusted to detached monks from Hambye Abbey and serves as a necropolis for the Estouteville family. The abbey church, rebuilt several times, was only completed in the 16th century, while the convent buildings date back to 1676-1682, under the impulse of Louis de La Fayette, a trading abbot.

The Abbey underwent a Maurist reform in 1754, followed by a period of reconstruction in the 18th century. Dissolved in 1789, his property was sold as national in 1791. In the 19th century, Eugène Delacroix drew inspiration from the ruins for works preserved at the Louvre and the Delacroix Museum. In 1994, Benedictines of Lisieux settled there, and the church was restored and consecrated in 2004.

From the abbey remain the ruins of the Renaissance choir (1520), with a triforium and arches in the middle, as well as the axial chapel dedicated to the Virgin, known as the Six-Hours. This chapel houses tombs of the Sires d'Estouteville and 16th century stained glass windows. Conventual buildings, organized around a cloister, include an orange shop, a vegetable garden and an orchard.

Several elements are protected as historical monuments: the Absidial Chapel (classified in 1951), the facades of the convent buildings (registered in 1965), and the entire monastic enclosure (registered in 1995). The abbey thus illustrates nearly 900 years of religious and architectural history in Normandy.

Among the notable abbots were Jean Ribault, rebuilder of the Abbey in the 16th century, and Louis de La Fayette, introducer of the reform of Saint-Maur in 1680. The Countess Marie II of Saint-Pol is buried there, and artists like Delacroix draw their inspiration, linking heritage and artistic creation.

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