Abbaye aux Dames

The Abbaye aux Dames in Caen is one of the finest Romanesque monastic complexes in northern France, constructed from Pierre de Caen — a pale limestone quarried locally and later exported to build landmarks including the Tower of London. Around 1060, Queen Mathilde of Flanders founded the abbey as an act of penance for her canonically disputed marriage to William the Conqueror; the church of Sainte-Trinité was consecrated in 1066, the very year William invaded England. Mathilde was buried before the high altar in 1083, and her original tomb slab survives in the choir. The 18th-century conventual buildings now house the Normandy Regional Council and are partly open to visitors. The Romanesque nave, with its powerful rounded arches and well-preserved three-apse east end, ranks among the most intact examples of Norman ecclesiastical architecture anywhere.