Notre-Dame de Dives-Sur-Mer church is a Catholic building in the French commune of Dives-sur-Mer, in the Calvados department of the Normandy region. It was the site of a major pilgrimage that lasted until the Wars of Religion and the destruction of a devotional object, a Christ Saint-Sauveur, found by fishermen in the 11th century. The pilgrimage then resumed until the French Revolution.
Although the current building still contains elements dating back to the 11th century, and has suffered severe damage over the centuries, it is in relatively good condition thanks to successive restoration campaigns, the most recent dates from the early 21st century. According to Arcisse de Caumont, it is "the most remarkable monument in Dives". It has been listed as a historic monument since 1888. A number of furniture items have also been listed.
Few of the church's old stained-glass windows have survived, although at the end of the 20th century, a stained-glass panel from the 14th century was found and purchased by the commune with the help of the French government. The building has also preserved some remarkable marine graffiti on its walls, dating from the 15th to the early 20th centuries: the collection of graffiti, exceptional since there are over 400 of them, makes it possible to study both marine and river ships, as well as many aspects, including religious ones of the life of the community present in the commune for over more than five centuries.
Location
The church is located in the commune of Dives-sur-Mer, rue Hélène Boucher, in the heart of the old village and in the eastern part of the town, in the French department of Calvados. It is set back from the three main roads that run through the area. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the church was still surrounded by a cemetery.
History
From its origins to the 13th century, a parish church whose development was linked to a pilgrimage.
The site has had a place of worship since at least Carolingian times, and even as early as the 6th or 7th centuries. Dives depend on Jumièges Abbey from the 9th century.
Fishermen discovered the statue of Christ Saint-Sauveur on April 6, 1001, according to the traditional date. The cult, however, is more recent. After fishing, one of the men grazes the statue with an axe, causing it to bleed. The cross was discovered three years later in the sea. The statue would have been the subject of a dispute between sailors from Dives and Cabourg, having been found in the waters of the latter parish; the statue, after being thrown into the estuary on the advice of the ecclesiastical authorities, then washed up on the Dives shore. This statue may have been linked to Nicomedes, who sculpted several effigies, or to a cult building destroyed by marine erosion or from a sunken ship. Saint-Sauveur was the name of the village until early modern times. The building is mentioned in a text by Duke Richard II dated 1025.
The church houses the relic, and the village is a place of pilgrimage that generates income. This pilgrimage takes place twice a year, from Pentecost to Trinity Sunday, and in August. It is based on the legend of Christ the Savior. Pilgrims enter through a portal reading the legend of Christ the Savior in the historiated keystones. The pilgrimage's purpose was not only to rescue pilgrims at sea, but also to fight epidemics and save their souls. Access was via the south portal.
The oldest parts of the current building date back to the 11th century, although it is not known when the first stone was laid, probably before. Tradition attributes its construction to William the Conqueror, as early as 1067, just after the conquest of England following the Battle of Hastings. Better evidenced, a charter from Guillaume de Breteuil dating from the end of the 11th century specifies that the donor granted Troarn Abbey a plot of land to extend the church. The extension of the building is thought to date from the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Guillaume de Breteuil died in 1103.
After the conquest of England, the fiefdom of Dives became part of the Abbey aux Hommes de Caen, whose rights were shared with the Abbey Saint-Martin de Troarn from 1066. The rights of the Caen abbey were confirmed between 1066 and 1077. The division between the two abbeys was confirmed by Odo between 1079 and 1083, as high dignitary of the duchy and not as bishop. Odon's charter describes the building as an "old chapel". The Abbaye aux Dames owns the tithe of Dives. The Abbot of Caen collects tithes. He also collects tolls on captured whales and rights to salt produced. The Saint-Martin de Troarn abbey owns the rights to the Dives church, the right to appoint a priest and the cemetery.
Dives benefited from its connections with England. A priory was founded in the 12th century, at an unknown date, perhaps as a result of the success of the pilgrimage, with an unknown location. In 1908, Abbé Bourdier mentions a period between 1179 and 1203 for the founding of this priory. Some believe that the remains of the former priory, fortified at the beginning of the 15th century, are located opposite the church. The building was sold at the beginning of the 18th century. According to Carpentier, this location is part of a local tradition, and it may simply be located within the church.
The Romanesque extension to the church may date from this period. A document in the Saint-Martin de Troarn chartrier indicates that the donor's name, Durand, may apply to an abbot in office from 1059 to 1088, or to another in office from 1179 to 1203. Carpentier leans towards a dating in the last quarter of the 12th century.
After the conquest of Normandy by Philippe Auguste, Dives became part of the royal domain, and was managed as a fiefferme; the lords of the estuary chose the English side, so the domains were handed over to loyal followers of the new power. Around 1280, the fiefferme was attributed to the abbot of Saint-Étienne.
From the 15th to the 18th century, between renovations and misfortunes
Expansion continued in the 14th and 15th centuries in Radiant Gothic style, particularly in the nave. The reconstruction of the building begins with the choir and extends up to the first two bays of the nave. The transept and the upper part of the tower were also rebuilt. The statue of the Holy Savior is placed in a high chapel and watched over by three monks provided with rooms.
The Hundred Years' War caused serious damage to the church, which was "devastated". Information on the Hundred Years' War is scarce. English troops devastated the town in 1362 and 1410, and there was even a battle in 1443 that ended in a fire. Construction of the church was delayed, especially as the Black Death affected the region. The Little Ice Age reached its zenith in 1380. Caen was occupied in 1417 following a siege of the city.
After 1417, the coastal areas were occasionally ravaged by English and French troops, despite the establishment of a "sea watch". The watch was probably kept from the church tower. The war disrupted trade and the church's construction was halted. The church may have been destroyed, which explains the building's construction phases.
Work was also carried out in the 16th century, in Flamboyant Gothic style. The destruction of the statue of Christ Saint-Sauveur, "a large worm-eaten crucifix" according to Théodore Beza, is attributed to Admiral de Coligny's Huguenots in 1562, stationed in the town awaiting English aid after having sacked Troarn Abbey. This episode took place at the start of the Wars of Religion. A fire is said to have left its mark on the bell tower.
A copy of the statue of Christ Saint-Sauveur was made in the 17th century and placed in the north transept after having been deposited in the apsidal chapel of the Virgin. The pilgrimage no longer drew large crowds. According to Carpentier, the decline in pilgrimage had more to do with changing mentalities, the Catholic Reformation and economic changes from the 17th century onwards. The town declined economically and demographically until the 19th century. The high chapel is still mentioned in the early eighteenth century.
From the French Revolution to the 21st century
Parish priest Perrin took his oath to the Constituent, then emigrated in 1792. He was replaced by a juring priest. The church was looted in 1793: the bells narrowly escaped being melted down, but the silver treasure (representing 5.6 kg, or 12.34 lbs) was not so lucky. The statue of the Saint-Sauveur was hidden by a local resident for the duration of the French Revolution. The church became a temple of Reason in August 1793.
The church was restored to worship in 1802, following the Concordat, and the parish had to rent the presbytery, which had been sold, to accommodate the parish priest. Pilgrimages stopped but resumed in 1812 with a new stained glass window, and the reinstallation of the statue of Christ. A single parish priest officiated in Dives and Cabourg in 1825; a house had to be acquired in the late 1820s to serve as a presbytery, but this was not completed until 1834. Work on the presbytery came up some forty years later.
Restoration work began in 1842 and continued until the present day. However, the upper chapel was destroyed in the 1850s, but the building was recognized "for its heritage, architectural and historical value". The building was listed as a historic monument on May 4, 1888.
The medieval stained-glass windows were replaced in the second half of the 19th century, and the new glasswork was restored after the Second World War. Work has also been carried out by the municipality since the late 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. Since the 1990s, the church has been the subject of a major restoration campaign. A new campaign began in 2012 and was completed in 2014 with the restoration of the lantern tower and transept. Restoration work has continued since the 2010s, in particular on the nave bays, the stained glass windows (thanks in part to a donation from a private individual) and certain items of furniture. The building remains fragile, as the sea air is eroding its sculptures.
The building is used by the parish of Saint Sauveur de la Mer, created in 1997 and comprising the communes of Dives-sur-Mer and Houlgate. A statue of Saint Sauveur was donated to the building in 2001. Since 2017, there has been only one priest for three parishes (Saint Sauveur de la Mer, Notre Dame des Fleurs and La Trinité des Monts).
Description
Architecture
General features
The church is built in limestone. It is oriented and shaped like a Latin cross.
The building comprises a nave and two aisles. There are two porches to the north and south, allowing two chapels to be placed on either side. The transept also retains two chapels. The chevet is flat, with a building behind it, possibly a sacristy.
The church at Dives is "strangely similar to its English contemporaries", and out of all proportion to the size of the old village. The church features Romanesque elements from the 11th century, with interlaced capitals at the transept crossing of the pre-Romanesque section. The transept and apse were enlarged in the 12th century, followed by the flamboyant Gothic style of the 14th and 15th centuries. The 14th-century reconstruction saw the addition of the aisled choir, the transept, the upper part of the square tower and the eastern bay.
In the early 1990s, the church was described as "surrounded by yew trees". The remains of the gateway to the cemetery on the north side of the building, feature shields carved on the two pillars, one better preserved than the other.
Porches and nave
The western door is "a true masterpiece of sculpture" and was fitted with a porch that has now disappeared. The building retains a pediment added in the 18th century, with the inscription "le temple de Dieu est sainct" (the temple of God is holy) in a title block. The monumental portal features a canopied Virgin and Child, and two other canopied statues of St. Peter and St. John the Baptist. The tympanum has no sculptures. The western facade features a polygonal tower.
The first four bays of the nave were not completed until the late 15th or early 11th century, along with the aisles and side chapels, the two side porches and the stair turret. The square tower was used as a lookout during the Hundred Years' War. The first bays of the nave are covered with a wooden ceiling.
Two side porches, one opposite the other, were used for "the entrance and exit of the faithful". The porch on the south facade has two levels, and the portal features a semicircular arch. The charters were kept above the southern porch and above the baptismal font.
The north porch housed the monks' two-storey bedrooms and the upper chapel, reserved for clerics. A fireplace has been preserved. The building also retains mullioned windows in the north aisle, vestiges of the monks' bedrooms.