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Origin and history

The Saint-Thomas-Becket de Aizier, located in the department of Eure in Normandy, is a leprosy founded in the early 12th century by the monks of the Abbey of Fécamp. Placed on a given land in 1006, it welcomes lepers and includes a chapel dedicated to Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury murdered in 1170. The chapel, dated between 1173 and 1180 thanks to architectural and historical elements, became an important place of devotion.

Written records of maladry remain rare before the 15th century, but texts from the 16th and 17th centuries attest to its gradual decline. In the 16th century, the site became a priory dependent on Fecamp, although the priors were not very busy. The chapel, in ruins from the seventeenth century, was banned in 1717 but remains a place of pilgrimage. At the Revolution, it was sold as a national property and fell into disuse, covered by vegetation.

Rediscovered in 1981, the maladry was the subject of archaeological excavations between 1984 and 2010, revealing a fossil enclosure, a cemetery of more than 220 graves, residential buildings and a paved pond. The remains, including the chapel, enclosures and pond, were listed as historical monuments in 1993. Today private property, the site is open to the public and offers an interpretive route to discover its history.

The architecture of the maladry reflects its medieval organization: an enclosure delimited by a ditch and a slope, a Romanesque chapel with a single nave, 13th–15th century hospital buildings replaced by wood-paned houses, and two cemeteries (north and south) organized according to social or family criteria. Burials, often in wooden formwork, reveal traces of leprosy, confirming the initial vocation of the site.

The chapel, of asymmetrical plan, presents walls in flint and limestone, with foothills and Romanesque bays. His choir and nave, partially ravaged by a fire in the late Middle Ages, housed three altars. The excavations have also revealed rigorous funeral practices, such as the collection of bones during the overlapping of graves, suggesting respect for the deceased and a permanent management of the sepulchral space.

Today, maladry remains a place of memory and devotion. Visitors can observe archaeological remains and participate in guided walks. The chapel, though ruined, still attracts pilgrims, especially lovers who come to tie branches of holly or hazelnut, perpetuating a tradition linked to the durability of emotional ties.

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