page_title: Cherbourg-Octeville
section_title: Religious monuments
hierarchical_section_title: Cherbourg-Octeville / Culture and heritage / Heritage / Religious monuments
caption_attribution_description: L’Église Notre-Dame du Vœu
context_page_description: Cherbourg-Octeville is a city and former commune situated at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It is a subprefecture of its department, and was officially formed when the commune of Cherbourg absorbed Octeville on 28 February 2000. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. The city is a Maritime prefecture and sub-prefecture of la Manche. Due to its union, it is the most populated city in its department with 37,121 inhabitants making it the first city of the department before the Saint-Lô prefecture and the second in the region after Caen.
  Cherbourg-en-Cotentin is protected by Cherbourg Harbour, between La Hague and Val de Saire, and the city has been a strategic position over the centuries, disputed between the English and French. Cited as one of the "keys to the kingdom" by Vauban, it became, by colossal maritime development work, a first-rate military port under the leadership of Napoleon I, and holds an arsenal of the French Navy.
context_section_description: The Abbey of Notre-Dame-du-Vœu was founded in 1145, on the coast of Équeurdreville, at the Croûte du Homet, by Empress Matilda. Located outside the city walls, it was regularly looted and burned during the incessant Anglo-French battles, then during the Wars of Religion. Subject to the regime of a commendatory abbot in 1583, it declined until its closure in 1774. Its lands were annexed in 1778 for the construction of the military port, and it became the residence of the Duke of Harcourt, who sheltered the King in 1786. The place was then transformed into a hospital, into a prison, and into the Martin des Pallières Barracks for the marine infantry.
  The company town of Chantereyne was built in 1928, until its destruction in June 1944. Bought by the Town Hall in 1961, the Abbey has been slowly restored since 1965. The smokestack of the Abbey House (16th century) is kept in the council room of the city hall, the west portal of the Church (13th century) is placed in the public garden. The remains of Martin des Pallières barracks were classified in 1913, then all of the buildings, remains and soil of the abbey, in September 2002. The grave slab of Guillaume de Margerai, priest of Querqueville, who died in the 1280s, uncovered, has been classified as an historic monument since 1995.
  The Basilica of Sainte-Trinité, begun in the 11th century at the request of William the Conqueror, remained the only parish church of the city until the 19th century. The stately church dedicated to Our Lady in the castle was destroyed along with the fortress, in the 17th century. The Trinité was enlarged and transformed significantly in the 13th century, the nave was rebuilt, the choir and the bell tower is recorded from after 1450. After a rampage by January 1794, it had added a new square bell tower 26 m (85 ft) in 1828 and restored in neo-flamboyant style in 1865. Registered as a historical monument since March 1944, Trinité has a rich religious furniture, including a high altar of 1809, a wood pulpit carved by Pierre Fréret (1767), a retable of Armand Fréret (1814) and the great organs by Cavaillé-Coll.
  The church of Notre-Dame du Roule was built at the foot of the Montagne du Roule between 1832 and 1842 under the leadership of the "poet-Barber" Michel Legoupil and by the subscription of the faithful of the peripheral quarters of Roule which grew, such as the districts of the Vœu and the Polle.
  The church of Notre-Dame-du-Vœu, begun in 1850 on subscription of the parishioners and in the Romanesque style due to the scarcity of resources, was erected on a pasture, known as les briques, offered by Mr. de Virandeville. In 1855, the municipality completes the nave inaugurated in 1852 by a transept and a more ornate choir, and in 1862 the façade and two bell towers. A work of 61.5 m (202 ft) in length, the church houses a large organ by Duputel (1885), classified as a historic monument since 1990 and the stained glass windows of 1834, 1858–60 and 1949–58.
  The Church of Saint-Clément was built within the quarter of the Val-de-Saire, facing the Pasteur hospital, between June 1853 and 1856 by the architect of the city, Geufroy. 52 m (171 ft) long, it is of Greco-Roman inspiration, with a porch in the triangular pediment supported by four columns with Doric capitals. It houses the altars of the Virgin (1863) by François Fréret and Saint-Clément (1864) by Louis-Victor Fréret, acquired from the Basilica of Sainte-Trinité in 1846, an organ (1881), painting of the twelve apostles (1935) the Rock of Césigné and stained glass (1953) of Mauméjean.
  The Church of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul, on the area of Octeville, was built between 1967 and 1969 while the "grand ensemble" of Provinces was born. The triangular and irregular modern architecture of Paul Vimond symbolises "the tent of God in among the houses of men", a sacred art inspired by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Another Church was built on Octeville during those years: The Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine-Postel opened in 1966 in the quarter of Fourches and decommissioned in 1990.
  The Church of 
caption: The Church of Notre-Dame-du-Vœu.
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