Louviers (Eure), Notre-Dame, south
porch. Photograph: Clarence Ward
Collection. Courtesy of Oberlin
College.
sculpture. The late-medieval stone statuary of the interior is also remarkable.
William W.Kibler/William W.Clark
Verdier, François. “L’église paroissiale Notre-Dame de Louviers” and “Le couvent des pénitents de
Louviers.” Congrès archéologique(Évrain, Lieuvin, Pays d’Ouche) 138(1980):9–32.
LUÇON
. Luçon (Vendée) first appears in the documentary record in the late 830s as a
dependency of the abbey of Saint-Philibert of Noirmoutier. By the 11th century, the
fortified village included a parish church of Saint-Philibert and, more importantly, a
Benedictine abbey of Notre-Dame. Burned by the count of Poitiers in 1068, the abbey
was restored between 1091 and 1121. The Romanesque fabric survives in the north
transept, but the main body of the church was raised in campaigns of the 13th (transept,
beginning of choir), 14th (nave), and late 14th-early 15th (remainder of choir, sacristy)
centuries. With the elevation of Luçon to episcopal rank in 1317, Notre-Dame was
designated as the cathedral of the see. While the flat east wall of its choir follows the
The Encyclopedia 1077