Visitation de Caen, Religious monastery and church in Caen, France

Visitation de Caen is a monastery whose chapel, built from 1890 and blessed in 1892, has a light beige stone facade in three tiers: a round-arched carved wooden double door, a round window in a circular molding with a keystone, and a curved pediment holding a sculpted heart emblem between flat pilasters. Its steep dark grey slate roof carries a round window, spaced metal hooks, and an octagonal louvered lantern with a slate dome and metal finial.

The building was constructed in the late 19th century when religious communities in Normandy were establishing new architectural works. It documents this period of church construction across France during that era.

The monastery's name comes from the Order of the Visitation, restored in France by Napoleon I in 1805 at the request of his mother Laetitia Bonaparte; the sisters returned to Caen in 1810. Léonie Martin, sister of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, entered three times and took the habit here in 1893 as Sister Thérèse-Dosithée, dying in 1941; her body lies in the chapel crypt.

The building sits in central Caen and is easy to reach on foot from the main streets. It is protected as a historical monument and can be viewed from the outside.

Léonie Martin, sister of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, entered this Visitation three times before taking the habit definitively in 1899 as Sister Françoise-Thérèse. She died here in 1941 and is buried in the chapel crypt.