Fécamp Abbey
The Abbey of the Holy Trinity at Fécamp, commonly known as Fécamp Abbey (French: Abbaye de la Trinité de Fécamp), is a Benedictine abbey in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, France.
The abbey is known as the first producer of bénédictine, a herbal liqueur based on brandy.[1]
First foundation[edit]
Around 658, Waningus, a Merovingian count, founded a nunnery here, which was destroyed by the Vikings in 841.[2] Another convent he founded in 660, near the site of the Precious Relic, was destroyed by the Vikings in 842. Around the ducal palace, the foundations of two chapels have been found.
Second foundation[edit]
In the 990s Richard I of Normandy, who was born in Fécamp, began the rebuilding of the church. It was Richard II who invited the zealous Saint William of Volpiano in 1001 to rekindle the life of the abbey under the Cluniac Benedictine rules.[3] These two Norman rulers, who were originally buried outside,[4] were later interred in 1162 by Henry II of England within the southern transept of the Gothic abbey church.[5]
The remains of the two kings were moved several times and reburied in several places, finally being placed in lead boxes and reburied again in the southern transept in 1956. In February 2016, French, Danish and Norwegian researchers opened the lead boxes in order to conduct DNA analysis of the remains. Radiocarbon dating of the remains showed that neither skeleton could be that of Richard I or Richard II. One skeleton dated from the third century BCE, the other from the eighth century CE, both long before the lifetimes of Richard I and Richard II.[6]
Saint William is buried in one of the northern chapels.
Church architecture[edit]
The abbey church dedicated to the Holy Trinity was built between 1175 and 1220 using the cream-coloured stone of Caen. Under the Plantagenets, the scriptorium at Fécamp produced numerous illuminated manuscripts.
