Abbey of Jumièges

The abbey of Jumièges (Seine-Maritime) was based by Saint Philibert, wire of a frank count of Gascogne towards 654 on a field of the royal Fisc.

History

The May 24th 841, the monastery is burned by the Viking S. In front of the Scandinavian threat, the monks exile and give up the abbey ten years in the middle of the 9th century.

Under the impulse of Guillaume I {{er}} of Normandy, the abbey is restored by monks coming from the Abbaye Saint-Cyprien of Poitiers: towards 934, the buildings are summarily restored to accommodate 12 monks.

The abbot Robert Champart makes rebuild the monastery (1040 - 1052). July 1st 1067, the archbishop of Rouen, happy Maurille, solemnly devotes the large abbey church of Notre-Dame de Jumièges, in the presence of the duke of Normandy William the Conqueror.

The chorus of the church is rebuilt towards 1267 - 1270.

In 1431, the abbot of Jumièges, Nicolas the Russet-red, man who was not without qualities, which one had rented piety, the regularity, devotion to the interests of its monastery, took an active share with the lawsuit of Jeanne d' Arc. Its opinion for the judgment betrays the anxieties of its conscience; he considered the cause very difficult, in tam arduo negotio , and was determined only by fear of the English and, he should well be also said, by the authority of the doctors of Paris of which it had taken the watchword.

During the wars of religion, the abbey is again put at bag. The Huguenot S, which devastated Rouen, Dieppe, Le Havre, Caudebec arrive at the doors of Jumièges. The monks, having learned the bag from Caudebec, leave all the abbey. The May 8th 1562, the Protesting S start from Caudebec for Jumièges where they find the monastery deserted. They there penetrate and put all at plundering. The furnace bridges are reversed, the stolen sacred vessels, the broken images, the holy relics thrown to fire. Mountings, ornaments, linen, silverware, pieces of furniture, all is destroyed or carried. The lead whose church and cloister were covered, tin, copper, the provisions in kind, wine, corn, cattle, all, to the books of the rich person and splendid library and with the files of the chartrier becomes the prey of these plunderers.

The July 28th 1563, the king Charles IX went to Jumièges and noted its eyes the extent of the disaster. It made it possible to the monks to sell their grounds to provide for their first needs. Thus they alienated the seigniory of Norville and yielded it to Charles of Thimble, count of Brissac, lord of Etelan, for 10.220 books. Seventeen monks only turned over then to Jumièges and gave a little order in the poor devastated abbey.

The abbey of Jumièges becomes state-owned property in 1947, then property of the department of Seine-Maritime in 2007. It is located in the Canton of Duclair, in Seine-Maritime.

Description of the buildings

The abbey church

It is about a Romance building, today in ruin. It measured 88 meters length and its nave reached 25 meters made up of three stages. A turn-lantern on two floors illuminated the transept crossing. At the west, the solid mass is located projecting and is framed of two 46 meters height about symmetrical turns, in withdrawal.

The abbey is plundered during the Guerre One hundred Year old, and is taken by the Protestants in 1562.

In 1688-1692, one builds a false ribbed vault.

In 1802, the new owner of Jumièges explodes the chorus. The church knows a slow dismemberment and is used as stone quarry until 1824. The frescos were unobtrusive with the action of the elements. The Lepel-Cointet family repurchases the abbey in 1852 and starts to save the vestiges. With the romantic fashion, the church knows an important fame thanks to Victor Hugo which will speak about “more beautiful ruin of France”.

The cloister

The cloister was built at the 16th century by a woman of the name of Corinne de Tygier.

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