Abbey of Sainte-Trinité, Benedictine abbey in Caen, France.
The Abbey of Sainte-Trinité, known as the Abbaye aux Dames, is a former Benedictine nunnery in Caen. Its church, begun in 1062, has a pale stone facade with two towers: the left shorter with small arched openings, the right taller with tall narrow blind arches. The nave is covered by a gallery triforium, and the aisles have the first groin vaults built in Normandy in 1130.
Founded around 1059–1060 by William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, the abbey was one of two Benedictine houses they established in Caen, possibly as penance for a marriage the pope had opposed. Construction of the church began in 1062 and was completed in 1130. Matilda was buried in the choir in 1083, and the conventual buildings were rebuilt from 1702 to plans by Guillaume de La Tremblaye.
The abbey's name comes from its dedication to the Holy Trinity, and it was known as the Abbaye aux Dames to distinguish it from William's Abbaye aux Hommes. The central portal's tympanum shows the Trinity with the four apocalyptic beasts, symbols of the Evangelists. Matilda of Flanders lies in the choir under a slab of black marble, and her daughter Cecilia, given as an oblate at age five in 1066, was also buried here.
The former monastic buildings have housed the Regional Council of Normandy since the 1980s, after serving as the Hôtel-Dieu hospital from 1823 to 1983. The church of Sainte-Trinité, restored between 1990 and 1993, is entered through the central portal of the west facade, whose tympanum shows the Trinity and the four apocalyptic beasts. Matilda's tomb lies in the choir, under a slab of black marble.
Matilda of Flanders, who died in 1083, lies buried in the choir beneath a slab of black marble. Her son William II of England gave the abbey the manor of Horstead in Norfolk, where the nuns ran Horstead Priory until 1414. The original spires were destroyed during the Hundred Years' War and replaced in the early 18th century by the balustrades seen today.
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