019. Bréville. The Romanesque church among the trees. In the 12th century, Bréville had an active economic life, with fisheries, salines, pitch sand and kelp used as fertilizers, and intensive crops. The territory of the parish was owned by Mont Saint-Michel since 1022, when Richard II, duke of Normandy, gave the barony of Saint-Pair to Mont Saint-Michel. In the 13th century, the patronage was secular, with Guillelmus de Breinville as the lord between 1251 and 1279. The tithe was shared between the pastor and the abbot of Mont Saint-Michel. In the 16th century, Bréville, with its church and salines, was a prebend for the cathedral of Coutances. Photo by Alain Dermigny. [Alain-006]
020. Bréville. The Romanesque church was under the patronage of Our Lady (Notre Dame, in French), and the second saint was St. Helier. The parish belonged to the deanery of Saint-Pair and the archidiachoné of Coutances. Photo by Alain Dermigny. [Alain-007]
021. Bréville. The Romanesque church is composed of a two-span nave followed by a two-span choir with a flat apse. The square tower rises between choir and nave. Most of the nave, the tower base and the side walls of the choir are Romanesque, and probably from the second half of the 12th century. The masonry is made of irregular blocks of schist. Granite is used for the buttresses, the abutments of openings, the attached piers, the columns and the arches. Photo by Claude Rayon. [Claude-006]
022. Bréville. The sacristy is the five-sided small building located in the extension of the choir. It was added much later, in the 19th century. Photo by Alain Dermigny. [Alain-009]