This is the main church of Royal Abbey of l’Épau and it’s an impressive space and relatively complete example of Cistercian architecture. The abbey was partly destroyed in 1365 during the Hundred Years’ War, reportedly by the inhabitants of Le Mans to prevent it being used as a base by English forces, and reconstruction continued from the late fourteenth century into the fifteenth century. Modern study of the surviving roof timbers has dated work above the choir to 1427–28, the crossing to 1428–29, the north transept to 1429–30 and the nave to 1431–32.
There weren’t many visitors, so I had this space to myself for most of my visit. Cistercian churches were intended to avoid excessive decoration and visual distraction, but they did allow themselves a little decadence with wall paintings.
I was initially puzzled by the plan of the church, although it doesn’t take a great deal to confuse me. The large open space in the first photographs is labelled on some plans as the transept, while the nave above appears unexpectedly short. The church has the usual cross-shaped Cistercian plan, with an east-to-west length of around 70 metres and a transept measuring approximately 47 metres across, but descriptions of the building note that the nave was never fully completed. That would explain why the transept seems to dominate the interior and why the nave looks as though somebody reached the western end of the building programme and thought “that’ll probably do” or similar. Or perhaps someone fell out with the construction engineers, or, more likely, they ran out of money.
This was what the church looked like in 1940, taken from a similar angle from where I took the previous photo. The building had been used by troops in the First and Second World Wars, but it had been on the decline since the late eighteenth century when the monks were thrown out.
And further usage of the church when it was used as a large shed, I suppose it meant that the farmer’s cart remained nice and dry. Fortunately for the farmer, this was a well-built church with no danger of falling down.