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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame de Caudebec-en-Caux church, located in the Seine valley between Rouen and Le Havre, is a masterpiece of the flamboyant Gothic and early Renaissance. Henry IV called it "the most beautiful chapel of my kingdom". Built on the site of a Merovingian abbey for women, it was entirely rebuilt between 1426 and 1484 by architect Guillaume Letellier, after centuries of evolution since the 11th century. Its absence of transept and its architectural finesse bring it closer to Saint-Maclou de Rouen.

The building suffered major damage during the wars of Religion (1562) and the French Revolution, where only its stained glass windows and organ, spared by patriotic airs played by its owner Le Maignen, partially resisted. The arrow, restored between 1883 and 1886 by Louis Sauvageot, aroused controversy for his approach considered too interventionist. During the Second World War, although spared by the bombings of 1940 and 1944, it lost its bells melted in the city's fire, their hidden debris to avoid their reuse by the Germans.

The interior houses exceptional stained glass windows, including 15th century English works offered by Foulques Eyton, British captain during the Hundred Years War, and Renaissance stained glass windows attributed to the workshops of Arnoult de Nijmegen. The latter illustrate biblical scenes such as Moses crossing the Red Sea — where the sea is strangely coloured in red — or Jesus and the Samaritan. The pendant key of the chapel of the Virgin, weighing 7 tons, and the sculpted wooden baptismal fonts testify to the know-how of the time.

The Grand Organ, installed in 1542 in a Renaissance buffet, was enlarged in 1738 and restored several times, including a reconstruction faithful to its 18th century state between 2002 and 2005. His buffet, described by Norbert Dufourcq as a "world of animals and statuettes", is one of the most remarkable in France. Gustave Flaubert drew inspiration for The Legend of St Julien's Hospitaller, while Louis Sauvageot received a gold medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition for his work on the arrow.

Recent restorations, such as those of the "bell chamber" in 2020 and the arrow in 2021, perpetuate the preservation of this monument, ranked among the most beautiful examples of Norman religious architecture. Its western gate, once decorated with 333 sculptures, including a rare lourus player, still bears the stigma of the Calvinist destructions and fires of 1940.

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