Église Saint-Malo

The church of Mouen appears late in the written sources, although it is placed under a name generally associated with ancient parishes (Saint Malo, Breton evangelizer of the 6th century). In 1190, mention is made of the donation of tithes from the Mouen church to the Abbey of Saint-Etienne de Caen, which included rights to vines that appear to have been produced in the village.

The church, which is still located on the edge of the village, has a very homogeneous appearance, typical of highly-decorated 12th-century churches, with decorative themes commonly found in England (abundantly decorated with chevrons and flat heads biting a torus - beakheads).

The simple nave opens onto a single-portal façade harmoniously divided into four registers by cornices adorned with sculpted friezes. The third register is a band of arcatures on colonnettes that also runs along the top of the nave's drip walls, topped by a series of modillions carved with various subjects. This motif of arcatures on colonnettes is well represented in a number of churches in the Plaine de Caen and coastal Bessin regions: Rots, Thaon, Fontaine-Henry, Secqueville-en-Bessin, etc...

The belfry appears more rustic, or at any rate, less ornate, with a solidly buttressed blind stump, a first storey adorned with veneered arcatures, and a third storey, under the gambrel roof, opened by geminated bays with undecorated arches. The choir and chevet have been completely rebuilt in imitation of the Romanesque style of the original church. A door with a curiously sculpted lintel opens onto the south wall of the nave.