Museum Pont-de-l’Arche Parish Church “Our Lady of the Arts”

You are standing in front of Pont-de-l’Arche Parish Church. Work began on the present building in 1499 and nothing is known about the smaller church it replaced. The new church was dependent on Jumièges Abbey and was originally dedicated to St Vigor, an early Bishop of Bayeux, but in 1896 the parish priest decided to change the dedication to Notre-Dame-des-Arts.

The name, meaning “Our Lady of the Arts”, was chosen to celebrate all forms of artistic beauty. As we’re in a church, this includes the beauty of Creation (with a capital C) and the natural world, but also human artistic creativity and everything that goes into building a church. The whole church is effectively a work of art that skilfully combines architecture, sculpture, painting and stained glass, while also celebrating music and singing, of course.