ST DOMINIC’S CHAPEL
The chapel is a small building which lives in the shadow of its elder sister, the clifftop church, but it too deserves a visit. Half-hidden between the trees on the main road, at the entrance to the village on the right coming from Hautot-sur-Mer, the chapel can be entered from a small path, hardly visible to the stranger.
“There was a wooden chapel at Varengeville on what is now the sports field but in 1942, during the Canadian raid on Dieppe, a German plane fell on it and it was destroyed”.
St. Dominic’s chapel was originally a barn which was renovated, thus giving the diocese a beautiful new building. The renovation in brick, flint and stone of St Dominic’s Chapel began in the 1950s with the addition of a porch and a sacristy to give the priest more room. The chapel was consecrated in 1955 and a cross was set up at the entrance.
The three stained glass windows in the chancel designed by Georges Braque are the gift of the artist himself.
In the centre, St Dominic, a pilgrim’s staff in his hand and rosary beads around his waist, welcomes the congregation. On either side the windows represent the brazen serpent. The other stained glass windows were also designed by Braque.
A carved wooden statue of an angel watches over the chapel and the visitor can admire a painting by Maurice Denis dating from 1916. Bought by an inhabitant of the village in 1928, it was given to the chapel in 1976. It shows the procession of Notre Dame de la Clarté in Brittany. This chapel is a place to be visited in silence.
Translation : Alison Dufour