Church of Notre-Dame-sur-l'Eau
Built around 1020 by Guillaume de Bellême. It owes its name to its location on the banks of a ford in the Varenne river. It saw manants, noblemen and high dignitaries passing by on their way from Paris to Mont Saint-Michel. William the Conqueror, Henry II, who often stayed in Domfront, stopped there.
About this building
The church of Notre-Dame-sur-l'Eau is the church of a priory of the Abbey of Lonlay located in Domfront en Poiraie. Built between the 11th and 12th centuries, it has undergone many advances but remains a major building in the architecture of this region. The original plan includes a nave of six bays with wide aisles, a projecting transept, a one-bay choir ending with an apse and two apsidioles opening onto the transept. There are two very similar phases of construction, the nave and the transept with the choir. They are marked by a change of axes. The transept is the most characteristic part of the building, with Carolingian pillars. In typical Norman style, the lantern tower rises at the intersection of the nave and the transept. Elegant and sturdy, it consists of two floors of semicircular arches.
