Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Garde, Maritime chapel at Falaise d'Amont, Étretat, France.
Chapelle Notre-Dame de la Garde stands on the Falaise d'Amont above Étretat, about 50 metres from the cliff edge. The rebuilt neo-Gothic chapel has walls of rough light beige and grey stone, a steep slate roof likened to an upturned ship's hull, and a square tower with a slender spire and cross. Fish-head gargoyles decorate it, and three blind arches mark the plain end wall.
Father Michel initiated the chapel in 1854 as a tribute to sailors lost at sea, funded by early tourism; it was consecrated on 6 August 1856. German occupation troops destroyed it in 1942, and architect Arthur Giraudet with contractor Lanfry of Rouen rebuilt it in Neo-Gothic style. Archbishop Joseph-Marie Martin consecrated the new building on 22 August 1950.
The chapel is dedicated to the Holy Virgin and to the sailors and fishermen lost at sea, the reason Father Michel promoted its construction in 1854. Its slate roof is shaped like an upturned ship's hull, and the gargoyles are carved as fish heads, details a visitor can pick out on the exterior.
The chapel stands on the Falaise d'Amont, about 50 metres from the cliff edge, northeast above Étretat. It is in private ownership and only rarely open to the public, so visitors usually see it from outside. The Nungesser and Coli memorial stands just to the east.
The chapel's roof is covered in slate and shaped like an upturned ship's hull, and its gutters end in gargoyles carved as fish heads. The stained glass windows date from 1964 and were made in the Degusseau workshop. The building has been privately owned since its postwar reconstruction and is only rarely open to the public.
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