On the eastern edge of the Pays d'Ouche, between Breteuil-sur-Iton and Verneuil-sur-Avre, the village of Dame-Marie has been home to at least one building dedicated to the Virgin Mary since the 11th century.
While certain elements such as the lower half of the south façade or the baptismal font are reminiscent of a 13th/14th century building, the building was almost completely rebuilt in the 16th century, after the ruins caused by the Hundred Years' War.
The following were then created: raised stone buttresses, single or double-mullioned windows with flamboyant tracery pierced to the south of the nave, bays with banded arches and semicircular arches. Finally, the essential contribution was the addition of a seigneurial chapel of Saint-Sébastien to the north of the nave. After numerous alterations in 1955 and more recently, it now presents a general state of disrepair.
The village of Dame-Marie merged in 2016 with those of Saint-Ouen d'Attez and Saint-Nicolas d'Attez, to form the commune of Sainte-Marie d'Attez, which has fewer than 600 inhabitants. Two of the three churches listed as Historic Monuments required major restoration work. The commune began with the emergency of the one in Saint-Ouen which was threatened with closure. It is now the one in Dame-Marie which requires major restoration. We are attached to our three churches, they bear witness to our past, help us to pass them on to future generations!