Holy Trinity Basilica (Basilique Sainte-Trinité)

From 1466 to 1794, the basilica housed a mechanical marvel called the 'Assumption Mechanism'. Every August 15th, this elaborate contraption suspended beneath the nave vault would animate figures depicting the Virgin Mary's Assumption, with ascending and descending angels surrounding her coronation by God the Father. A devil figure was added in 1560. The prestigious 'Notre-Dame-Montée' confraternity, with up to 1,200 members including nobles and abbots, maintained this spectacle for three centuries until revolutionaries destroyed it in 1794.

The ten 15th-century English alabaster panels depicting scenes from Christ's and the Virgin's life owe their survival to a local citizen named M. Asselin. During the Revolutionary period when churches were being ransacked and religious art destroyed, Asselin hid these delicate Nottingham carvings, preserving them until they could be safely returned to the basilica after the Reign of Terror ended.

The haunting Danse Macabre reliefs were carved in the late 15th or early 16th century as a direct response to the Great Plague that devastated Cherbourg. The 17 limestone panels show Death claiming victims from every social class - from pope and emperor to workers and children - serving as a sobering reminder that mortality spares no one, regardless of wealth or status.