Montaure (canton of Louviers, Eure) Church of Notre-Dame

    The church was given to the abbey of Saint-Ouen in Rouen in the early 11th century by the seneschal Eudes Stigand and William the Conqueror confirmed its possession in 1063, which did not prevent the abbey from forging a document during the 12th century attributing the foundation to Duke Richard II. It was dependent upon a priory.
Apart from a few renovations during the 13th century (chevet and crypt), in the 16th century (re-working of the bays, and stair turret) and in the 17th to 18th centuries (porch), this well-preserved cruciform church, seems to date from the 1020s or just after. It is important evidence of the first Romanesque architecture before the apogee of the government of William the Conqueror.
Its square central tower, which is probably the building's most interesting feature seems to have been completed towards the middle of the 11th century. It is constructed of small regular rubble stones with limestone freestone in the corners which with the other facings in the church, contribute to making the latter “one of the most complete and most complex examples of the architecture of Haute-Normandie in small flint stone facing” (L. Musset).

Bibliography

- Dictionnaire des églises de France, Belgique, Luxembourg, Suisse, IVB, Normandie, Paris, 1968, p. 111 (notice de M. Baudot)
- Musset L., Normandie romane, 2. Haute-Normandie, La Pierre-qui-Vire, 1974, p. 29
- Baylé M., Les origines et les premiers développements de la sculpture romane en Normandie, Art de Basse-Normandie, n°100 bis, 1992, spécialement p. 24
- Baylé, Maylis. “ Montaure : église Notre-Dame ”, in : Collectif, 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. 20-21