Church of Saint Nicholas, Blois: Partial view, spires rising above the town

Fleeing the Normans, the Benedictine monks in charge of the relics of their founder St. Laumer found refuge at Blois. They decide to build their monastery, the abbey church of Saint-Laumer, commonly called St. Nicolas Church. From 1138 to 1186, the monks built the choir, the transept and a first bay, completing the church at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The speed with which the construction was done, with the only addition being the apsidal chapel in the fourteenth century, gives the church unity of style. When the religious wars broke out, the church was mutilated and the abbey destroyed. The abbey was rebuilt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, then, with the Revolution, it became the Hotel Dieu.