Built from 1175 to 1220 by Richard the Lionheart, towering Abbatiale de la Ste-Trinité was the most important pilgrimage site in Normandy until the construction of Mont St-Michel, thanks to the drops of Jesus’ blood that, legend has it, miraculously floated to Fécamp in the trunk of a fig tree, landing on a beach nearby. Across from the abbey are the remains of a fortified château built in the 10th and 11th centuries by the earliest dukes of Normandy.
The official story is that the drops of Jesus' blood were dispatched across the sea by the Pharisee Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who together prepared the body of Christ for burial.