Abbey of Saint-Pierre de la Couture

This first period came to an end because of the Norman invasions of the second half of the 9th century, when the monastic establishment was largely destroyed. The comital house of Maine undertook its restoration: around 990, Count Hugh II († c. 992) called upon Abbot Gausbert († 1007), who had already taken part in the foundation of the Abbey of Maillezais (Vendée). He promoted the material reconstruction of the church and monastery, while Hugh himself restored its lost properties, allowing the abbey to recover its prosperity. It was during this period that the monastery began to be known as La Couture.

Decline came with the introduction of the commendatory system. In 1518, Michel Bureau, the last regular abbot, died, and his successor, Jean Colluaut, became the first commendatory abbot. During the second half of the 16th century, the monastery also suffered from the disturbances caused by the passage of the Huguenots through the city. In 1657, it joined the Congregation of Saint-Maur, which undertook the reform of its observance and, during the 18th century, the reconstruction of the monastic buildings. The abbey church remained outside this programme of renewal and was preserved.

The church now serves parochial functions. It is a building erected after the restoration of the monastery, beginning in the second half of the 11th century, with additions from the following century and major Gothic structures built in the 13th century and later. It is a single-nave church with a transept. On the eastern side, adjoining the transept, stands the chancel, surrounded by an ambulatory with radiating chapels. Only one of these chapels belongs to the earliest period; the others were rebuilt later and have a rectangular plan. The façade dates from the 13th century. The church also preserves the late-11th-century crypt, where the relics of Saint Bertrand, the founder, were venerated.