Saint Martin-de-Boscherville (canton of Duclair, Seine-Maritime) Abbey church of Saint-Georges

    Construction started in 1113 for a group of monks from Saint-Evroult who were summoned to Boscherville by Guillaume de Tancarville to establish a Benedictine order. Undoubtedly finished around 1130, hardly altered since then, the abbey-church is one of the best-conserved examples of Norman architecture during the reign of Henri 1 Beauclerc († 1135). Constructed in horizontal sections, the edifice is 66.30 metres long and 19.90 metres wide, that is to say 20 feet by 60. Its plan seems to have been directly inspired by that of Saint-Evroul abbey-church, finished in 1099. The influence of the d’Ouche abbey is equally apparent in its choice of certain decorative themes on its capitals: a saint Eloi capital known as “le monnayeur” (the money-maker), a probable Saint Agnes, a representation of a miracle of Saint Evroul. The vestiges of the oldest surviving wooden ceiling in Normandy (first half of the 12th c.) can be seen above the transept vaults. 

Jacques Le Maho

Bibliography

- L. Musset, Normandie romane II, La Haute-Normandie, collection Zodiaque, La Pierre-qui-Vire, 1974, p. 143-157 ; J. Le Maho et N. Wasylyszyn, Saint-Georges de Boscherville, 2000 ans d’histoire, Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville, 1998, p. 14-19.