The best road cycling routes around La Chapelle-Souëf

Detailed information is available on Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porte_Saint-Julien_(La_Fert%C3%A9-Bernard)

The priory was founded at the beginning of the 11th century and is dedicated to Saint Gauburge (or Walburge), abbess of a large Bavarian monastery in the 8th century. Originally owned by the lords of Bellême, it passed, from the 12th century, to the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis-en-France. From the end of the 15th century, it was directly dependent on royal power until the Revolution. An important rural estate, its buildings bear witness to its special status and the magnitude of its revenues. Since 1972, it has housed the headquarters of the Perche Ecomuseum, which bears witness to the peasant life of the Perche and develops a diverse cultural program.

Pretty little town with character!

The church has a Latin cross plan. It has a single nave and a flat chevet. A small building is attached to the chevet. A bell tower flanks the building. Buttresses support the drip walls and the gable wall. Pointed arch bays with tracery illuminate the building. The portal, in a low arch, has its external arched voussure.

Church built in the 12th and 16th centuries. Listed apse from the 12th century. 4-storey bell tower. Corner buttress bell with staircase turret. Renaissance portal. Large Gothic window above the portal. 16th century roof and nave. Stone statue of a bishop, 16th century paintings.

The nave is covered with a wooden vault with exposed beams. The archivolts of the Romanesque door are decorated with saw teeth. The west gable wall is topped with a slender bell tower. The interior contains three classical altars whose designs were apparently made by Mansard at the request of Louvois, owner of the Prairie de Marcilly.

Latin cross plan with one nave. Bell tower rising at the corner of one of the side walls of the nave and one of the arms of the transept. Very simple front facade: semi-circular portal and oculus. Gable of the north arm of the transept pierced with a broken bay with tracery. Church built in the 16th century. A bay dates back to the 11th century; the north chapel dates from the 16th century; church remodeled in the 17th century

The Notre-Dame parish church, formerly the presentation of the Saint-Vincent abbey in Le Mans, is a beautiful building measuring 30 m in total length. The various stages of its construction in the 15th, 16th and 18th centuries. took nothing away from its interest. The pointed arch windows which light the choir have partly flamboyant tracery which belongs to the end of the Gothic period. The nave communicates with the aisles via large semi-circular arches. Between the northern side chapels rises the bell tower covered with a gable roof. On the south side there are three side chapels. The nave and the choir have a beautiful exposed framework in the shape of an inverted ship's hull. The current poor state of the roof has led to problems with this framework. The church itself is not protected, but has a high altar, a tabernacle, and an altarpiece from the 17th century. classified as Historic Monuments. A baptistery with its balustrade, also from the 17th century, and a Louis XVI period lectern complete this furniture. For the repair of the roof of the chapels and the north side of the nave, the Safeguarding of French Art granted two grants of 100,000 F in 1992 and 1994.