Welcome to the church of Notre Dame in Louvières
(extracts and adaptations of the Historical Notes on the Bessin, the Monumental Statistics of Arcisse de Caumont and the documents "Le Bessin, churches in the heart", Editions ADTLB)
Around 1930, scholars from Bessin found old documents from parish and notarial archives. We learn in particular how the church of Louvières was maintained and how the parish was under the "patronage" of 3 local lordswho, in exchange for their contribution to the construction of the church in the 11th century, each had a right to present a parish priest to the consecration by the bishop. So there were 3 parish priests in Louvières
It is on the chapter of the cathedral of Bayeux and the lord of the place (sieur de Vierville) that the cure depended until the Revolution (based on the book Pelut of 1355).
The building, dated from the 13ème to the 16ème century, remodeled in the 19ème century, was classified as a Historical Monument in 1840.
Sheltered from the winds of the sea, Notre-Dame proudly launches its sharp arrow on the flanks of the green valley of the Véret, parallel to the sea. Hence its illustrious nickname "the Louvières arrow". Like many churches on the coast, the second patronage of this building is placed under the name of Saint Nicholas.
It was severely damaged by lightning in 1844. The municipality could not support the reconstruction expense alone, but the Government, the Departmental Administration and the French Archaeology Society came to its aid. The spire could therefore be rebuilt in 1859 by the architect Delaunay.
In 1944, the spire remained intact as a result of the fighting, but an explosion of ammunition at the end of 1945 near the neighboring village of Asnières cracked it.
In 1981, once again the bell tower was struck by lightning.
In 2002, work to sting the bell tower allowed its consolidation, but the use of bells is no longer possible.
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An association for the restoration of the church of Louvières was created in 2009. One (constitutive assembly on May 23, 2009 in the church).
The Renaissance du Bessin of August 14, 2009 announced the constitution of the office, see opposite.
A 2010 General Assembly was held on May 29 at Louvières City Hall. Attached report with in particular the program of activities planned for 2010.
The 2011 General Assembly is scheduled for June 11, 2911.
The association Église Notre-Dame de Louvières is preparing its actionsRead the rewritten text
This reading version has been rewritten from the newspaper clipping. Connecting phrases and any reconstructed words are not a verbatim quotation.
In its edition of August 14, 2009, La Renaissance du Bessin presents the first projects of the association Église Notre-Dame de Louvières, officially registered on June 30. His office is studying ways to highlight the building, find funding and recruit new members. Several actions are in preparation; letters can be sent to the association at the town hall.
The board brings together Jean-Jacques Françoise, president; Bernard Lanoux and Thierry de Lammerville, vice-presidents; Marie-Thérèse Exmelin, treasurer; Rose-Marie Françoise, assistant treasurer; Monique Curé, secretary; and Monique Hardelay, deputy secretary. The photograph shows the team in front of the church entrance.
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Original OCR text
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The association Église Notre-Dame de Louvières is preparing its actionsRead the rewritten text
This reading version has been rewritten from the newspaper clipping. Connecting phrases and any reconstructed words are not a verbatim quotation.
In its edition of August 14, 2009, La Renaissance du Bessin presents the first projects of the association Église Notre-Dame de Louvières, officially registered on June 30. His office is studying ways to highlight the building, find funding and recruit new members. Several actions are in preparation; letters can be sent to the association at the town hall.
The board brings together Jean-Jacques Françoise, president; Bernard Lanoux and Thierry de Lammerville, vice-presidents; Marie-Thérèse Exmelin, treasurer; Rose-Marie Françoise, assistant treasurer; Monique Curé, secretary; and Monique Hardelay, deputy secretary. The photograph shows the team in front of the church entrance.
View the archive imageDownload the rewritten text
Original OCR text
The original OCR text is kept for comparison with the image. Its reading order and some words may be incorrect.
Visit from the inside of the church
Above the nave (1), the broken barrel vault such an overturned boat has no decoration. It is furnished with closed benches, formerly rented.
Turn around and observe under the window the patron saint of the church of Notre-Dame represented by a banner to parade the processions of the Fête Dieu or August 15.
This banner was given by Adhémar de Pierres, great-grandfather of the current owner of the castle of Gruchy, and embroidered by his great-great aunt Miss de Pierres.
Overlooking the entrance, a retable with difficult reading represents the Assumption with the apostles at the empty tomb.
Above the south side door (epistle side),(2) a cross surmounts a heart (perhaps it is the former triumphal cross of the 18th century, then suspended under the triumphal arch that precedes the choir).
A chair from the 18th century (3) is placed to the north.
The nave is pierced with large bays from the 19thth century. Fixed to the wall, small wooden bas-relief frames constitute the Way of the Cross (set of paintings that reconstruct the cycle of the Passion of Christ).
Two neo-Gothic side altars (4) seem to date from the 19th century. Their file painted on the wall sports crosses, banners and statues of the Sacred Heart to the north and of the Virgin to the south, under the names of which they are consecrated.
A niche houses a fountain or a liturgical sink intended for the priest's ablutions and the rinsing of sacred vases.
The bell tower (5) filed in the middle of the building rests on four pillars cantated of column bundles with vegetable cross capitals. The space delimited by the arches and pillars, in the center of the transept, is called the stransept square. On the nave side, the capitals of the two-vous arch are united with oak leaves on the left and tapered leaves on the right (same decoration in Saint-Martin-de-Blagny); a toro frames everything, it falls on female faces covered with a turban.
The double bow between transept and choir offers chapts és of clovers and other motifs.
On the right, the southern cross serves as sacristy. Two large statues of 1852 frame the entrance. These are Saint Paul with the sword and Saint Peter. The warheads fall on columns-free capitals called face-shaped culots with expressive features.
The choir of the 13ème century (6) was vaulted in the 14th century. It has two bays. The flat bedside which is frequently found in Bessin, closes the building. The vault of the apse counts eight warheads as in the churches of Saonnet or Littry.
The master altar of classicizing style (19th century) has a tomb shape on the front of which a Maltese cross is represented (as in Noron la Poterie). The tabernacle is adorned with a glory or a radiant triangle (symbol of the Resurrection) and a sacrificed lamb (the Passion).
Two backsplashes (niches with fountains) house liturgical sinks, to the right of the high altar.
There are four tombstones in the choir. Find that of the priest Léonard, Madeleine Louvel, wife of Michel de Pierre or that of the Lord of Romilly. "Here rests the bodies of the noble lord of Louvières, escuyer in front of lord and patron of Louvières and de Romilly who died on October 1, 1709, aged 63. pray to God for his soul".
The chapel to the north, (7) contains a confessional (purcted on behalf of the factory in 1867) and a tall statue of Saint Roch and his dog. A flamboyant Gothic-style opening pool (bend of a candle) is drilled in the north wall.
Visit from the outside of the church
The Notre Dame church is surrounded by the cemetery enclosure which offers us a point of view on the marsh and its side hills.
On its western facade, a porche (8) advances under a huge acute arch supported by four-leaf and chestnut leaf capitals (on the right). It is a small courtyard that serves as a narthex, a place for the unbaptized. The front door opens through a lowered hanger.
Above, three bays are opened in a lancet, a higher central and two small adjoining, which confirms the lowering of the roof and the posteriority of the porch.
The nave (9) est of Romanesque foundation, it still has in several places a set of stones arranged in fish bones (to the north). This suggests that its construction dates back to the end of the 11th century or the beginning of the 12th century. This masonry technique is reserved for humble and rural buildings, it is suitable for irregular stone rubble extracted from the surrounding soil and not in the plain of Caen. The nave is crowned with an entablement decorated with modillons with geometric figures (sading headband on which the roof rests).
"The original narrow windows, called visors or deadly, have given way to large openings without style, probably from the eighteenth century. The united band seen at the top of the walls could have been made to carry the shield of Adrien de la Rivière, lord of Louvières, on the day of his funeral in the church, October 1, 1708 (traditional use that gives this plaster the name of "liter" funeral)."
Destroyed by thunder in 1844 and cracked by explosions in October 1945, the tower‐bell tower (10) was raised in the middle of the transept in the 13th century, just like the choir.
It is the architect Delaunay, contemporary of Arcisse de Caumont (he will work in all the churches of the country in the second half of the 19thEme Century), who rebuilt it, as well as the frame and the cover of the nave (1859).
The tower allows you to observe the usual order of the Romanesque bell towers.
The windows are closed by sound flaps which direct the sound to the ground and hold it to amplify it.
The transept date of the 16th century as evidenced by the flamboyant Gothic-style twinned bays (double window) representing the flame of a candle surmounted by three roses.
Above the south door (11) of the nave, a niche houses a bas-relief. It may be a Virgin and Child.
Map of the church
Several old tombstones bear the names of the Pierres family, from the castle of Gruchy
(details) The 18th century pulpit, made of wood
(details) the small swimming pool with opening of the North wall, in flamboyant Gothic
(details) A low cabinet with 3 locks for the needs of the 3 parish priests of Louvières
The arrow
If a church was the setting of the divine presence, it also had to show it, betray it by its very beauty, amaze, challenge the passerby, fill the men of God. The entire external order of the sanctuary contited to these happy effects.
The ornamentation was privileged on the facade and the portal, a face that a church offered to the faithful, or under the entablement garnished with modillons that remind Christians that they enter a consecrated, fenced place, where it is necessary to be initiated.
But what pleased at the beginning of the second millennium was the conquest of the sky by towers and bell towers. It was a grandiose rivalry. Huge silhouettes had to attract the attention of the traveler as well as that of the plowmen in the countryside. Through them, God reminded himself to the attention of Christians. Not far from the dungeon, the bell tower offered its sound relief and sported all the pride of the village community.
The usual order of towers in terms of construction and Romanesque ornamentation finds a faithful example in Louvières: a square tower stuck in the center of the building, whose openings and decoration increase from floor to floor. On the upper floor, on each side, between two arches of the same shape, open two bays with triple recessed.
- More commonly covered by a pyramid or a building, there are some churches in Bessin with an octagonal spire as in Louvières.
‐ Here, the spire is made of stone framed by four bell towers, two of which are truncated to the south and four skylights or gables with a pyramidal termination. This arrow is the most tapered and the tallest in the country.