Saint-Loup (canton of Avranches, Manche) Church of Saint-Loup

    The little rural church of Saint-Loup, a building erected in the first third of the 12^th century, is the best preserved of a whole group of Romanesque churches in the Avranches region (Bréville, Yquelon, Saint-Pair, Saint-Jean-le-Thomas, Dragey, and Saint-Quentin-sur-le-Homme) which have a number of common features, frequently changed by later additions and restorations.
Its very simple plan consists of a rectangular nave, with a timber-framed roof, a chancel of two bays, rib-vaulted, and a semi-circular east end with a domed vault.
A rectangular chapel was infelicitously added to the north side in 1602 and the original window openings have, with three exceptions, been enlarged. The outside walls are strengthened and punctuated by flat buttresses which also frame the west doorway whose arch of two orders is supported by pairs of colonettes with crocket capitals.
The tower is positioned over the first bay of the chancel. It is solidly supported by buttresses at the first stage and there are two further stages, each offset from the one below.
The first stage has a pair of blind arched openings on its north and south faces, the heads emphasised by a hood mould. The second stage is pierced on each face by a window opening with deep multiple arches. A corbel table supports the wooden spire which has replaced the original pyramidal roof.
The tower at Saint-Loup can be compared to that of Saint-Pair-sur-Mer which is nearby  and was built in 1131 by one Rogerius de Altomansiunculo. 

Bernard Beck

Bibliography

- Beck, Bernard. - Quand les Normands bâtissaient les églises, Ocep, Coutances, 1981
- Erlande-Brandenburg, Alain. " Saint-Loup ", in Dictionnaire des Eglises de France, IVB Normandie, Robert Laffont, 1968