Propriété familiale du peintre Paul-Elie Gernez · Photo: Philippe Alès · CC BY-SA 3.0

59historic monuments

History of Honfleur · Monuments historiques

A secteur sauvegardé since 1974, and 59 historic monuments

The Culture ministry lists 59 historic monuments in Honfleur: 16 classé (France’s highest heritage protection) and 43 inscrit (the second level). That’s 89 for every 10,000 residents, more per resident than almost every compared French town; the median compared French town has 2.5. The oldest date from the 14th century. We have photos of 57 of them.

16classé 1974protected area 14th c.oldest part 1875first protected

Monuments historiques

89 per 10,000 residents
median compared town 2.5

Classé

the highest protection

Inscrit

the second level

Oldest part

14th c.

of any listed monument

Homes before 1919

18%

median compared town 7.4%

In pictures

Honfleur in 57 photos

Nearly every classé monument, photographed. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.

Bâtiment dit la LieutenanceClassé

Manoir de RonchevilleClassé

Ancien grenier à selClassé

Manoir de Conti en pans de bois à VasouyClassé

Église Sainte-CatherineClassé+52See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its license; names open the monument’s page.

Protected area

Honfleur has had a protected historic area since 1974

Sites patrimoniaux remarquables on the Culture ministry’s list, with the plan in force.

Area	Created as	Plan in force
SPR28-06	Secteur sauvegardé September 4, 1974	PSMV (safeguarding plan) January 11, 1985

A site patrimonial remarquable protects a whole area rather than one building: inside it, building work follows the area’s own plan and needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France. A PSMV (plan de sauvegarde et de mise en valeur) is the strictest plan: it covers every building, inside as well as out.

The list gives no boundaries, so the map can’t show the area.

Map

Where Honfleur’s monuments stand

Every monument with a point on the ministry’s list; the larger, darker dots are classé.

Classé is the higher protection: any work on the building needs the State’s permission. Work on an inscrit building must be declared to the State in advance. Around both, building work in sight of the monument (usually within 500 m) needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France.

Points as the ministry gives them: a monument spread over several plots has one point. 1 monument has no point on the map.

Classé

16 classé monuments in Honfleur

Classé is France’s highest protection for a building, held by about a third of the monuments on the list. 2 of the 16 are protected in part only (a façade, a roof, a room). Each card opens the monument’s page.

Church · protected 1932Ancienne église Saint-Etienne, actuellement muséePhoto: PMRMaeyaert · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Church · protected 1980Église Saint-LéonardPhoto: Johan Allard · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Church · protected 1875Église Sainte-CatherinePhoto: Hajotthu · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Manor house · protected 1927Manoir de Conti en pans de bois à VasouyPhoto: Didier9548 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Manor house · protected 1985Manoir de RonchevillePart of the building is protectedPhoto: Daniel VILLAFRUELA . · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Public building · protected 1916Ancien grenier à selPhoto: Pymouss · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Residence · protected 1994Propriété familiale du peintre Paul-Elie GernezPart of the building is protectedPhoto: Philippe Alès · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Public building · protected 1932Ancienne prison vicomtalePhoto: Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Fortified house · protected 1909Bâtiment dit la LieutenancePhoto: Daniel VILLAFRUELA . · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Manor house · protected 1932Manoir VigneronPhoto: Wielaard Photography · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Well · protected 1932Puits situé dans la cour du Musée du Vieux HonfleurPhoto: Carl Ha · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Town walls · protected 1932Rempart de villePhoto: Miniwark · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Building · protected 1932Immeuble, 2 rue de la PrisonPhoto: Juliofsanguino · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Building · protected 1932Immeuble, 4 rue de la PrisonPhoto: Wielaard Photography · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Manor house · protected 1928Manoir du Désert

Inscrit

43 inscrit monuments in Honfleur

Inscrit is the second level of protection: the building is worth keeping, and any work on it must be declared.

All 43, A to Z

37 more, named only by their kind

37 more are named in the list only by their kind: 35 houses (maisons), 1 building (immeuble) and 1 other, most from the 16th century. The 37 with an address are in the list above, by it.

See all 59 on the map

What’s protected

Most of Honfleur’s monuments are houses and homes

Each monument under the main domain Mérimée gives it.

Houses & homes46

Public & civic6

Religious buildings3

Bridges & engineering3

Military & fortified1

Houses & homes: 46 of 59 monuments (78%). 3 are religious buildings, 3 of them classé.

Mérimée files each monument under one main domain: a château with its chapel counts once.

How old

How old Honfleur’s monuments are

Each monument once, by the oldest part the list dates.

Prehistory & Antiquity to the 4th c.0

Middle Ages 5th–15th c.6

16th to 18th century Renaissance to Revolution46

19th century 1801–19002

20th century and later since 19010

6 of 54 dated monuments have parts from before 1500. The oldest dated: Ancienne église Saint-Etienne, actuellement musée (14th–16th c.). 5 monuments have no date on the list.

When protected

Over half of Honfleur’s monuments were protected in 1933

Monuments by the year they were first protected.

1933 · 33

186018801900192019401960198020002020

First protected, in 1875: Église Sainte-Catherine. 33 were protected in 1933 alone. None has been added since 2011.

Age of homes

18% of homes in Honfleur were built before 1919

Main homes by when they were finished, beside the median compared French town (the tick).

18%

Before 1919

5.3%

1919–45

13%

1946–70

24%

1971–90

15%

1991–2005

24%

2006 on

HonfleurMedian compared French town

18% of its main homes were built before 1919; the median compared French town has 7.4%. More of them were finished since 2006 than in any other period (24%).

INSEE, census 2023: main homes (résidences principales) only; second homes and empty homes aren’t dated.

Born before 1900

28 people born in Honfleur before 1900

The 20 best known on the line, and eight of them below.

Jehan Denis

Pierre Berthelot

Jean Doublet

Pierre-Ange Romain

Jacques Louis Narcisse Fortuné Taveau

Jacques Armand Delamare

Pierre Regnée

François Pierre Chauvel

Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin

Frédéric Coudre-Lacoudrais

Louis Desseaux

Auguste Lebouys

Eugène Boudin

Ernest Henri Besnier

Albert Sorel

Matilda Chaplin Ayrton

Alphonse Allais

Henri de Régnier

Erik Satie

André Marie

1500165018001950

Pierre Berthelot1600–1638 · French sailor and cartographer for the king of Portugal

Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin1768–1839 · French Navy officer

Eugène Boudin1824–1898 · French painter

Ernest Henri Besnier1831–1909 · French dermatologist

Albert Sorel1842–1906 · French historian

Matilda Chaplin Ayrton1846–1883 · English midwife and physician

Alphonse Allais1854–1905 · French writer and humorist

Henri de Régnier1864–1936 · French poet

Everyone born in Honfleur Birthplaces from Wikidata, checked against Wikipedia.

Towns its size

Honfleur has the most monuments of 41 towns its size

Compared French towns of 6,600 to 6,700 residents, by historic monuments.

Honfleur59

Luxeuil-les-Bains17

Gignac8

Longué-Jumelles6

Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron6

Laneuveville-devant-Nancy3

#1 of 41for monuments per resident (89 per 10,000). Most per resident: Honfleur, Luxeuil-les-Bains and Gignac.

The median town of these has 2. 8 of the 41 have none.

Neighbors

Historic monuments in the towns around Honfleur

Town	Residents	Monuments	Classé	Protected area
Honfleur	6,640	59	16	Yes
La Rivière-Saint-Sauveur	2,527	0	0	—
Gonfreville-l'Orcher Seine-Maritime	8,916	3	2	—
Beuzeville Eure	4,704	0	0	—
Trouville-sur-Mer	4,619	7	1	Yes
Touques	3,913	6	1	—
Harfleur Seine-Maritime	8,289	3	2	Yes

In brief

Honfleur in brief

Few towns are as rich in historic monuments as Honfleur: per resident it has more than 99% of compared French towns. In all there are 59 historic monuments, 16 of them classé, including Propriété familiale du peintre Paul-Elie Gernez. Its old center has been a secteur sauvegardé since 1974. No town its size has more historic monuments: it leads the 41 nearest in population.

Its housing is old: 18% of homes date from before 1919, against 7.4% in the median compared French town. Bâtiment dit la Lieutenance sits at the heart of it all, with 14 of the town’s classé monuments within 400 m. Trois maisons dites maison natale d'Erik Satie is one of the Maisons des Illustres, the homes of people who left their mark on France.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

Monuments historiques. France protects buildings at two levels. Classé, the higher (about a third of the list), means any work needs the State’s permission; inscrit means work must be declared to the State in advance. The Culture ministry’s Mérimée base lists every protected building, and this page counts them.
Partly protected. Many entries protect part of a building only (its façades and roofs, a staircase, a painted room). Each counts as one monument, like a fully protected one.
Where a monument is counted. In the commune named on its protection, moved to today’s commune where communes have since merged. A monument listed for several communes counts in each.
Sites patrimoniaux remarquables. Since 2016 France’s protected historic areas (the former secteurs sauvegardés, ZPPAUP and AVAP) share one name. Inside one, building work follows the area’s plan and needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France.
What isn’t here. Protected objects (furniture, organs, paintings), old buildings with no protection, UNESCO World Heritage listings and labels such as “Plus Beaux Villages de France” aren’t on this list, so this page doesn’t count them.
No History Grade yet. Everything on this page is described, not graded: France’s History Grade isn’t built yet.

Questions about the history of Honfleur

How many historic monuments are there in Honfleur?

The Culture ministry lists 59 historic monuments in Honfleur: 16 classé and 43 inscrit.

Which monuments in Honfleur are classé?

16, among them Ancienne église Saint-Etienne, actuellement musée, Église Saint-Léonard, Église Sainte-Catherine, Manoir de Conti en pans de bois à Vasouy, Manoir de Roncheville and Manoir du Désert.

How old are the monuments of Honfleur?

The oldest parts of its listed monuments date from the 14th century.

Is Honfleur a protected historic area?

Yes: part of Honfleur has been a site patrimonial remarquable since 1974.

When were monuments in Honfleur first protected?

The first in 1875, the latest in 1995.

How old are the homes in Honfleur?

18% of its main homes were built before 1919 (median compared French town: 7.4%).

France has no History Grade yet: this page describes, it doesn’t grade.

Sources: Ministère de la Culture, Mérimée base on POP (immeubles protégés au titre des monuments historiques), October 2026 · Ministère de la Culture, sites patrimoniaux remarquables, October 2026 · INSEE, census 2023 (main homes by build period) · Wikidata and Wikipedia (people born here) · Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata (photos of the monuments, each with its own credit and license) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · Medians and percentiles: TownRatings, over compared French towns, updated November 4, 2026. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).

Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.