Church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption

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Presentation

The church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption is open all year round. You can enjoy a self-guided tour of this 19th-century heritage site in La Plaine thanks to the contents of the church discovery guide.

The church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption is located in the market town of La Plaine.

The original village once stood on the site of the Croix de Saint-Etienne. The inhabitants were invaded by the Normans and the former priory, at a place called "la croix Saint-Etienne", was certainly destroyed at that time.

The first church of Notre-Dame de la Plaine was built around the year 1000. It was the first religious centre to be formed by the monks of Geneston, who depended on the abbey of Sainte-Marie de Pornic.

According to Ogée, this church was built on the site of an ancient Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to the Virgin, and a bell tower was added at the end of the 16th century.

The current church, dedicated to Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, like many others in the Retz region, was built in the second half of the 19th century.

As you enter the church, on the left you will see a curious 17th-century font. It is the oldest element in the church.
The font, made of black marble with white veins, bears an inscription reading:

a date, 1611. This date means that it is as old as the old bell tower;
a phrase that certainly identifies its donors: "Dieu face pardon à Georges Rolland et à Guillemette Davi sa femme" ("God forgive Georges Rolland and his wife Guillemette Davi");
as well as graffiti suggesting skulls below the rim.

The steeple of the building was used as a "sea wall" for navigation, before being damaged many times over the centuries and being replaced.
Until the construction of the Pointe Saint-Gildas semaphore in 1862, the spire continued to be used as a navigational beacon.

Following a terrible hurricane on 28 March 1836, the old bell tower was completely demolished. This storm also weakened the structures of the rest of the church. Reconstruction of the building was essential.

The first period of reconstruction of the church began with the bell tower and its spire, between 1841 and 1845.
The bell tower consists of a massive quadrangular tower with chain-linked buttresses in dark sandstone.
Its radiating semi-circular porch is built of clumsily carved shale stone.
The bell tower has a pepperpot at its north-east corner, which houses the staircase for the bells.

Work on this neo-Gothic church was completed in 1869.

More recently :

the interior of the church was renovated in 1993 - 1994,
the exterior of the building was renovated in 2004 - 2005.

During the events in the Saint-Nazaire pocket, the German occupiers set up an observation platform on its summit, with permanent surveillance.

Click here to consult the mass schedule for the Notre-Dame de la Côte de Jade parish.

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