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Origin and history

The Church of Notre-Dame de Mamers is a Catholic building located in the city of Mamers, in the department of Sarthe (Pays de la Loire region). Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, it replaces a 11th century Priory Chapel, destroyed to give way to a rectangular church with a square tower. This monument, marked by the wars of religion which partially damaged, has undergone several major changes over the centuries.

In 1776, the bell tower was moved over the entrance and redesigned, while between 1828 and 1832 the choir was elongated and modified. In 1862, a sacristy surmounted by a rostrum was added to the south. The church houses an organ buffet installed in 1901, replacing an ancient organ of 1791 from Perseigne Abbey. It was partially flooded in 1904 during a Dive flood. Classified as a historic monument in 1911, it preserves a 16th century terracotta representing a sleeping Virgin from the same abbey.

The architecture of the church reflects its many transformations, from its medieval structure to the additions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its furniture, including the terracotta statue and the organ buffet, bears witness to its historical connection to the Abbey of Perseigne. Today, the church remains an active place of worship and a protected heritage, emblematic of the religious and architectural history of the Sarthe.

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