The site that seduced Sébastien Preschoux was already an object of admiration for 19th century artists. They painted, in a romantic vein, the north wall of the priory church threatened by vegetation. The preservation of the site as ruins, following a fire in 1855, gives it its picturesque character. From the 11th century edifice, only two walls of the church remain, pierced by large bays in pointed arches, and a corridor whose vanished vault reveals the sky. At the origin of this priory was a chapter of canons and a collegiate church founded around 1070 by Roger de Beaumont, companion of William the Conqueror. The place was attached in 1174 to the abbey of Bec-Hellouin which transformed it into a priory. After the Revolution, the building changed its use and housed a cotton mill and a ribbon and sheet factory. A fire in the 19th century will cause the end of the factory. Once threatened with destruction, the building was protected as a historic monument in 1862. On the other side of the Atlantic, at the cloister museum of the famous Metropolitan Museum in New York, some of the priory’s stained glass windows are preserved. They were bought from an antique dealer by an American collector in the early 20th century.