The Normans

Pirates turn into princes

I photographed this photo essay about the Normans for the magazine GEO Epoche in the issue about the Vikings. Already in the planning stage we had decided to photograph the places in black and white, which turned out to be a good decision.

For a better understanding of the topic about the Normans, I have quoted a few passages from the text by Dr Ralf Berhorst here, which, together with the photographs, tells the story of the Normans and Vikings in northern France.
In 911, the West Frankish King Charles III gave the Viking Rollo and his comrades-in-arms an area on the lower reaches of the Seine as a fief. They had come to plunder the Frankish Empire, but now they were to serve as protection against their peers from the north – the nucleus for the later Duchy of Normandy had been laid.
The Vikings were given large regions east and west of the Seine by Charles; the area extended over 11,000 square kilometres along what is now the northern French coast.
The Vikings settled along the Seine valley and were called “Les Normands” by the locals.
William, the son of Rollo established himself, and the king left him further territories such as the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. The descendant of the Viking warrior became a respected Frankish noble and after years of intrigue and fighting, the former Vikings, now Normans, consolidated their power and turned Normandy into an efficiently administered Christian empire and rose to become a major European power.

The Normans achieved their greatest triumph in England when, in 1066, Duke William conquered the land that the Vikings had been fighting over for centuries.

Château de Caen

The massive ramparts of Caen Castle, later rebuilt several times, date back to Duke William the Conqueror, who subjugated the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 and extended Norman rule to England.

Castle of Caen. The gate Porte des Champs

Château de Domfront

Mighty castles, like this one in Domfront, built in the 11th century, were intended to protect the borders of the Norman territory: from the attacks of neighbouring French nobles.

Château de Domfront

Château Guillaume-le-Conquerant in Falaise

Abbey of Jumièges

In 841, Norsemen burnt down the abbey of Jumièges. Less than 100 years later, the Norman ruler William I, whose father had once raided the coasts as a Viking leader, had the monastery rebuilt.

Mont Saint Michel

The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel rises like a mountain massif from the mud flats off the Norman coast. Some of the buildings in the complex – such as parts of the church – were built during the reign of the Vikings from the 10th century onwards.