Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury

The church of Saint-Thomas-de-Chancorbery is accessed through a small courtyard next to the Belvedere hospital. It was built from the 12th to the 15th century. The assassination of the Archbishop of Cantorbery is represented in an interesting series of stained glass windows made in the 19th century by Jules Boulanger. The most remarkable element is the 17th century organ, restored in 2001 by Quoirin, a great specialist in historical organs, and set in a Renaissance sideboard with sculpted decoration. Concerts are regularly organized to make this rare instrument heard.
Text: Abbeys of Normandy

The Priory of Saint James

The Priory of Saint James was founded at the beginning of the 12th century, at a time when the worship of Saint James and the pilgrimage to Compostela were booming. * Dedicated to the reception of lepers, it is at the origin of the name given to this district located in the north of the Rouen agglomeration, and whose vocation of care is perpetuated nowadays at the Belvedere hospital. The activities of the priory were first grouped around the church that bears his name, then moved around a new building, the Church of St.Thomas of Cantorbery, built in 1175 by order of Henry II Plantagenet. Through this foundation, he who was then both king of England and duke of Normandy, tried to atone for the assassination of the archbishop of Cantorbery whom he had commissioned.
The church of Saint James, the first place of worship of the priory, was built in the 1130’s. It was a parish church from the end of the 12th century until the Revolution. Sold as a national property, it was gradually ruined. The Romanesque nave remains today, with its capitals decorated with animals and geometric motifs, some of which have retained their polychrome. Visible and free of access from the street, it is a place full of charm open to the panorama of the big city that extends below.
* Today it is a stop on one of the Norman routes of the pilgrimage.
Text: Abbeys of Normandy