Explorer Caen

The Church of Saint-Pierre stands at the foot of the Château de Caen and was built between the early 13th and the 16th centuries. Its east end, built by Hector Sohier between 1518 and 1545, combines Gothic forms with Renaissance decoration. The spire, brought down by a naval shell on 9 June 1944, has since been rebuilt.

The Château de Caen was built around 1060 by William the Conqueror on a rocky spur in the centre of Caen, and its walls enclose about 5.5 hectares. Visitors can walk the ramparts and see the base of the keep, the 12th-century Exchequer hall and the church of Saint-Georges; the Musée de Normandie and the Musée des Beaux-Arts stand inside the walls.

The Abbaye aux Hommes was founded in the 11th century by William the Conqueror, who is buried in the choir of its Romanesque abbey church of Saint-Étienne. The monastery buildings were rebuilt between 1704 and 1790 and have housed Caen's town hall since the 1960s; visitors see the cloister and exhibitions on the Norman world of 1066–1204 and on the summer of 1944.

The Abbaye aux Dames is a former Benedictine convent founded around 1060 by William the Conqueror and his wife Matilda of Flanders, who is buried in the choir of its Romanesque church of La Trinité. The 18th-century convent buildings now house the Normandy Regional Council; visitors can see the church and its crypt, and guided tours also enter the convent.

The Mémorial de Caen is a museum of 20th-century history and of peace, opened in 1988 on the site of the command post of the German general Wilhelm Richter, whose underground bunker can be visited. Its galleries cover the road to war, the Second World War, D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, and the Cold War; memorial gardens fill the valley below.