For some decades this church has been wrongly called Notre Dame de la Nativité, in perfect contradiction with the details of its architecture and its stained glass windows. Laborious steps in agreement with the Bishop are underway to restore the truth!
According to tradition, a primitive castle had been built in the Frankish period, on the banks of the Auxence river, at the place where the valley widens to give birth to the small plain called from the meadow Saint –Martin thus extending the meadow of Calais. In 632, the monks of Benedictine obedience were authorized by Dagobert to found a convent on the slope of the coast to the north of the castle. Its chapel was built in the western part of the installations. It was dedicated to the Virgin: Our Lady: Domina Maria. Serving as a place of worship, not only for the religious, but very quickly for the whole population that came to cluster around, it gave its name to the nascent city which thus became Dona Maria, Donna Maria in Montosio then Donnemarie in Montois. The invasions – especially that of the Normans – and the internal struggles did not spare him! Often damaged or even destroyed, it was always restored in the same place. This was still the case when, during the 13th century, the decision was made to rebuild the building again. However, it took more than two centuries to rebuild the building on the primitive chapel, giving, to the restorations, the appearance that we can appreciate today.
A tympanum is listed on the south portal dating from the twelfth century a central nave with collaterals on four bays surmounted by a triforium The choir of four bays with flat bedside recalling that of the abbey of Preuilly, the aisles with semi-circular apsidioles, a “passage champenois”, surmounted by a large three-row window window, only the middle row consists of medieval stained-glass windows, a “western portal” to the rich carved decorations unfortunately all the statues were decapitated during the years that followed Revolution of 1789! The bell tower, a 12th century Romanesque, comes from an earlier church (Renaissance frieze, restored 1527 spire, in the time of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc). On the south flank an awning well: Well of St Joseph at the origin of the construction, the choir grille eighteenth comes from Notre Dame de Provins.
On the north exterior: ancient cemetery now constitutes the Medieval Garden restored by Christophe Grunenwald twentieth century, bordered on two sides by two covered galleries (hanging keystones), called «Cloister» completed by the chapel Ste Quinette the set closed by a Renaissance portal.