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Origin and history

Notre Dame de Montmorel Abbey, located in Poilley in the English Channel, was founded in the 12th century by two local families, the Subligny and the Du Homme. Originally a priory dependent on the abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris, it was erected as an abbey in 1162 thanks to the land donations of Ruallen du Man and John de Subligny, confirmed by King Henry II of England. The establishment, placed under the protection of Richard Cœur de Lion in 1195, became one of the five male abbeys of the Diocese of Avranches, alongside Savigny and Mont-Saint-Michel.

In the Middle Ages, the abbey had an active monastic life, with up to fifteen regular canons of St Augustine residing there in the thirteenth century. She had priories, parish churches (such as those of Poilley and Ducey), and a leprosy. However, its history was marked by conflicts: looted by Anglo-Navarian troops in 1354 during the Hundred Years War, then occupied during the Hundred Years War under the abbatiate of William of Man (1406–1441), it was liberated by Bertrand of the Guesclin. The wars of religion in the 16th century caused significant destruction, requiring partial reconstruction in 1602.

In modern times the abbey was reformed in 1659 by the canons of the French congregation, but its decline began in the 18th century. In 1721 it was entrusted to Henri François Xavier de Belzunce, archbishop of Marseilles, before being sold as national property in 1791 during the Revolution. Only the abbatial home, remnants of the cloister (classified in 1980), and hydraulic elements remain today. The church, of Romanesque style remodeled in flamboyant ogival, and its convent buildings were destroyed, leaving only archaeological traces and historical descriptions.

The site, located on a peninsula formed by the Selune and Beuvron rivers, maintained a complex hydraulic system, including a bib and mills. The cloister, partially restored in the 15th century, had Romanesque and Gothic archatures, while the abbey house, decorated with a lacrosse and a carved mite, housed a prioral chamber with protected woodwork. The archives also mention seals and coats of arms linked to the abbots and founding families, such as the De Subligny.

The abbey of Montmorel illustrates the political and religious upheavals of Normandy, from its medieval foundation until its death at the Revolution. Its residual architectural heritage, protected as historical monuments, offers a fragmentary but precious testimony of Augustinian monastic life in Lower Normandy, between medieval prosperity and modern decline.

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