Condé-sur-Huisne (canton of Rémalard, Orne)  Castle Chapel

    Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Rivray Church.
The Rivray site owes its origins to the network of earthwork fortifications at the beginning of the 11th century by the Rotrous, lords of Nogent, to control the comté of Perche forming a border with the Norman territory.
In the 12th century, after the formation and pacification of the comté, the motte and courtyard became the centre of a feudal seigniorial lordship. A stone keep twelve metres across then replaced the former wooden keep and other constructions were built in the courtyard. This group of buildings was occupied continuously until 1428 when it was destroyed except for the castle chapel located in the north west.
The construction is of medium dimensions (c. 9m by 7m) and built to a very simple rectangular plan; it was connected to a large room 15 m by 9 m with which it communicated via a door in its north-eastern wall.
This room also gave access to a low room which was partly underground (another chapel perhaps?) whose four groin vaults radiated from a large central cruciform pillar and support the chapel proper. The whole construction dates from the first decades of the 12th century.

Bibliography

- L'art roman dans l'Orne, Art de Basse-Normandie, n° 66, été 1975, p. 10, 19, 26, 27
- Decaëns J., De la motte de conquête (XIe s.) à la seigneurie châtelaine (XIIe s.). l’exemple de Rivray à Condé-sur-Huisne (Orne), Château Gaillard, XVI, 1994, p. 109-120