ChurchHistoric SiteMonument
Notre-Dame Church of Pontorson, Pontorson
Pontorson›Manche›Normandy›Northern France›France
4.4(138 reviews)
30min
30min
Free Entry
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About Notre-Dame Church of Pontorson
Notre-Dame Church of Pontorson is a Romanesque granite church built in the 11th-12th centuries by craftsmen who also constructed Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey. According to legend, William the Conqueror commissioned this church to thank the Virgin Mary for saving his army from the treacherous quicksands of the Couesnon River—an event depicted both in a stained-glass window inside the church and on the Bayeux Tapestry. The western facade features two sculpted Romanesque turrets, considered unique in Europe by architectural historians.
During the French Revolution, locals saved a precious 18th-century wooden statue of the Virgin Mary by disguising it with a Phrygian cap and presenting it as "Marianne," the symbol of the Republic. The statue survived the revolutionary iconoclasm and can still be seen in the church today.
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