The Church of Saint-Pierre () is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located on the Place Saint-Pierre in the centre of

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, northern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

.Georges Huard, La Paroisse et l'Église Saint-Pierre de Caen, des origines au milieu du XVIe siècle, t. XXXV, Caen, Jouan, coll. ''Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie'', 1925 It is dedicated to

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

. Known as ''Saint-Pierre of Darnetal'', ''Saint-Pierre-sous-Caen, Saint-Pierre-du-Châtel, Saint-Pierre-en-Rive'', this church, often mistakenly called by the tourists "the

cathedra A ''cathedra'' is the throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop's throne. With time, the related term ''cathedral'' became synonymous with the "seat", or principa ...

l", as it was the largest religious building of Bourg-le-Roi; special care was therefore given to its development. The construction of the present building took place between the early 13th and the 16th centuries. It was in this church that during the Middle Ages the main public ceremonies took place. For example, when Henri IV abjured the Protestant religion, putting an end to religious wars, it was in St Peter's Church that the ''

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

'' was sung in the presence of the civil and religious representatives of the whole city. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

of the church was destroyed on 9 June 1944 by a shell fired at German forces from the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

battleship HMS ''Rodney'', and has since been rebuilt. The eastern apse of the church was built by Hector Sohier between 1518 and 1545. The interior choir and the exterior apse display an architecture that embodies the transition from Gothic to Renaissance. It ceased to be a

church building A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

on November 20, 1793, and became a

Temple of Reason A Temple of Reason () was, during the French Revolution, a state atheist temple for a new belief system created to replace Christianity: the Cult of Reason, which was based on the ideals of reason, virtue, and liberty. This "religion" was supposed ...

, and was from 1793 to 1795 used as a venue for the ' Culte de l'Être supreme', after which it was used for Catholic worship from June 4, 1795, to 1933. Until around the mid-19th century, the eastern end of the church faced onto a canal that was then covered and replaced by a road. Various artists and engravers recorded this relation of the church to the canal; for instance, the Scottish painter David Roberts made several very similar views, one of which (dated to c. 1830) is in Musée des Beaux-Arts in the

Château de Caen The Château de Caen is a castle in the Norman city of Caen in the Calvados ''département'' (Normandy). It has been officially classed as a ''Monument historique'' since 1997. History The castle was built by William the Conqueror (William of ...

(Caen Castle). This church building is the subject of a classification as

historical monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

by the list of 1840.Notice no PA00111139 rchive base Mérimée, ministère français de la Culture. File:St. Pierre, Caen, France, 1903. (2787319111).jpg File:Caen eglise saintpierre 1903 orgue.jpg File:St. Pierre, Caen, France, 1903. (2788173236).jpg File:St. Pierre, Caen, France, 1903. (2788176854).jpg File:Caen eglise saintpierre 1903 bascote.jpg

References

External links

Histoire de l'Église Saint-Pierre
(history of the church)
Église Saint-Pierre
photo {{coord, 49, 11, 3, N, 0, 21, 39, W, type:landmark_region:FR, display=title Roman Catholic churches in Caen