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Seine-Maritime (Department, France): Yacht clubs

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Société des Régates de Fécamp

by Ivan Sache

Fécamp is a port of c. 20,000 inhabitants located on the English Channel

Fécamp was built around a monastery found in the VIIth century to keep the relics of the "Precious Blood" and the fig tree "placed into God's hands" by Isaac, the nephew of Joseph of Arimathia, which had miraculously landed in Fécamp. Duke of Normandy Richard II promised to found a Benedictine abbey in Fécamp. He visited Burgundy, where he met the famous Clunisian reformist Guillaume of Volpiano. In 1003, Guillaume settled in Fécamp with his monastic community. Fécamp was the first pilgrimage in Normandy until supplanted by Mont-Saint-Michel. In the XIth century, the archbishop of Dol-de-Bretagne wrote: "The monastery of Fécamp is worth being compared to the Celestial Jerusalem. It is called the Heaven's Gate, the Lord's Palace. Gold, silver and silk ornaments are seen everywhere."
The relic of the "Precious Blood" is still venerated by pilgrims on Tuesday and Thursday following Trinity's Day. It is kept in the Trinity church, founded by Duke Richard I and rebuilt in XIIth, XIIIth, XVthy and XVIIIth century.

In 1510, the Benedictine monk Bernardo Vincelli distiled a mixture of local plants and spices. Using Vincelli's recipe, the merchant Alexandre le Grand created in 1863 the liquor called Bénédictine, which is still produced nowadays.

Fécamp was in the past the main port of the terre-neuvas, the fishing boats which fished cod around Newfoundland (in French, Terre-Neuve). Cod fishing ended in Fécamp in 1973.

Fécamp was popularized by the writer Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), who spent a part of his life there and located several of his short stories

(e.g. La Maison Tellier) in Fécamp.

The Société des Régates de Fécamp was founded in 1869. Its burgee is a triangular flag divided blue-white-red by oblique lines, with a yellow star in the white field.

Source: SRF website

Ivan Sache, 13 July 2002