Abbaye aux Hommes

Caen's two Romanesque abbeys were founded in the mid-11th century by William the Conqueror and his wife, Matilda of Flanders, as part of a deal in which the Church pardoned these fifth cousins for having semi-incestuously married each other. With its magnificent and multiturreted Église St-Étienne, the Abbaye aux Hommes is near the western end of rue Écuyère. This was William's final resting place, though the original tomb was destroyed by a 16th-century Calvinist mob and, in 1793, by fevered Revolutionaries – a solitary thighbone is all that's left of Will's mortal remains. Today, the 18th-century convent buildings house the town hall, and tours of the abbey run at 9.30am, 11am, 2.30pm and 4pm.