Vieux-Pont-en-Auge (Canton of Livarot, Calvados) Church Saint-Aubin

   The church of Vieux-Pont can be dated back to approximately the year one thousand, and is one of the oldest churches to survive in Normandy. The side tower was added in c. 1060 and the portal dates from the 12^th century.
With its construction techniques inherited from the Carolingian period, this monument is an example of Romanesque art with a tendency towards archaism which was not a school that took root in Normandy and whose origins are in the mid-Loire region, as was suspected from the time of the "discovery" of the church by A. de Caumont in the 1830s, and which was amply confirmed by later studies: the dedication, the location on a road linking Lisieux and the Anjou region, the types of bonding used (strings of bricks in bands in opus reticulatum in the Roman tradition, rubble stone joined by mortar joins only leaving a small amount of stone visible), close similarities with Anjou churches, especially that of Savennières (Maine-et-Loire).
The fact that this architectural model is not native to Normandy would also seem to stand out in the inscription intended to recall the anniversary of the death of the deceased, the patron or more probably the master builder. A sandstone plaque (0.39 by 0.28 m), which survives on the exterior facing, at the corner of the choir and the tower, carries the following text:

"VII ID(us) FEBR(ruarii) OBIIT
RANOLDVS
ILLE FVIT NATVS
DE GESTA (sic) FRAN
CORVM ANI
MA EIVS REQVI
ESCAT IN PACE
AM(en) ILLE FEC(it) ISTAN (pour istam)
ECCLESIA(m)"

"On the 7^th ides of February (7 February) died
Ranoldus (Rainauld)
He was born
of the race
of the Francs.
May his soul
rest in peace
Amen. He made (or caused to be built) this
church."

Bibliography

- Baylé, Maylis. - "Vieux-Pont-en-Auge : église Saint-Aubin ", in: L’Architecture normande au Moyen Age. 2. Les étapes de la création, Caen : Presses universitaires de Caen, Condé-sur-Noireau : Editions Charles Corlet, 1997, p. 16-17 et 349-350
- Caumont, Arcisse (de). - Statistique monumentale du Calvados, III, Arrondissement de Lisieux, Caen, 1867, p. 515-521
- Maneuvrier, Chr. - L'utilisation de la brique dans les premiers édifices romans du Pays d'Auge : matériau médiéval ou récupération ?, Histoire et tradition populaires du canton de Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives, Foyer rural du Billot, 38, juin 1992, p. 31-36
- Musset, Lucien. - Les problèmes de l’église de Vieux-Pont-en-Auge, Le Pays d’Auge, février 1967, p. 3-11
- Musset, Lucien. - La Normandie romane, 1. Basse-Normandie, Zodiaque, La Pierre-Qui-Vire, 1967, p. 43-44
- Les siècles romans en Basse-Normandie, Art de Basse-Normandie, n° 92, Printemps 1985, p.105