Fontevraud Abbey

Coordinates: 47°10′53″N 0°03′06″E / 47.18139°N 0.05167°E / 47.18139; 0.05167
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Fontevrault Abbey
)
Fontevraud Abbey
Abbaye Notre-Dame de Fontevraud
Richard the Lionheart
Architecture
Statussuppressed
Functional statusCultural Center & Museum
Heritage designationHistoric monument of France, World Heritage Site
Designated date1840
StyleRomanesque, Gothic, Classical
Groundbreaking1101
Site
Coordinates47°10′53″N 0°03′06″E / 47.18139°N 0.05167°E / 47.18139; 0.05167

The Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud or Fontevrault (in French: abbaye de Fontevraud) was a monastery in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in the former French duchy of Anjou. It was founded in 1101 by the itinerant preacher Robert of Arbrissel. The foundation flourished and became the center of a new monastic Order, the Order of Fontevraud. This order was composed of double monasteries, in which the community consisted of both men and women — in separate quarters of the abbey — all of whom were subject to the authority of the Abbess of Fontevraud. The Abbey of Fontevraud itself consisted of four separate communities, all managed by the same abbess.

The first permanent structures were built between 1110 and 1119.

Richard the Lionheart, were all buried here at the end of the 12th century. It was seized and disestablished as a monastery during the French Revolution
.

The Abbey is situated in the

French regional natural park
(Parc naturel régional Loire-Anjou-Touraine).

The complex of monastic buildings served as a prison from 1804 to 1963. Since 1975, it has hosted a cultural centre, the Centre Culturel de l'Ouest.

History

Founder

Main article: Robert of Arbrissel
Abbey of La Roë
Tomb effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Fontevraud Abbey
Map of the Abbey

canons regular at La Roë, of which he was the first abbot. In that same year Pope Urban II summoned him to Angers and appointed him an apostolic missionary, authorizing him to preach anywhere. His preaching drew large crowds of devoted followers, both men and women, even lepers. As a result, many men wished to embrace the religious life, and he sent these to his abbey. When the canons of that house objected to the influx of candidates of lower social states, he resigned his office and left the community.[2]

Fontevraud

Around 1100 Robert and his followers settled in a valley called Fons Ebraldi where he established a monastic community. Initially the men and women lived together in the same house, in an ancient ascetic practice called

priories where they lived in community in service to the nuns and under their rule. Sometime before 1106, Fulk IV, Count of Anjou gave a significant property gift to the abbey.[3]

They were recognized as a religious community in 1106, both by the

Bishop of Angers and by Pope Paschal II. Robert, who soon resumed his life of itinerant preaching, appointed Hersende of Champagne to lead the community. Later her assistant, Petronilla of Chemillé
, was elected as the first abbess in 1115.

Robert wrote a brief Rule of Life for the community, based upon the

double monasteries, the monks and nuns of the Order of Fontevrault followed the same Rule. In his Rule, Robert dealt with four principal points: silence, good works, food and clothing, encouraging the utmost in simplicity of life and dress. He directed that the abbess should never be chosen from among those who had been brought up at Fontevrault, but that she should be someone who had had experience of the world (de conversis sororibus). This latter injunction was observed only in the case of the first two abbesses and was canceled by Pope Innocent III in 1201. At the time of Robert's death in 1117, there were about 3,000 nuns in the community.[2]

In the early years the

Plantagenets were great benefactors of the abbey and while Isabella d'Anjou was the abbess, King Henry II's widow, Eleanor of Aquitaine, made the abbey her place of residence.[1]
Abbess Louise de Bourbon left her crest on many of the alterations to the abbey building which she made during her term of office.

Tomb effigies of King Richard I of England (right) and Queen Isabella of Angoulême (left)

Decline

With the passing of the Plantagenet dynasty, Fontevrault and her dependencies began to fall upon hard times. At the end of the 12th century, the Abbess of Fontevrault, Matilda of Flanders (1189–1194), complained about the extreme poverty which the abbey was suffering. As a result, in 1247 the nuns were permitted to receive inheritances to provide income for their needs, contrary to monastic custom. The fragile economic basis of the Order was exacerbated by the devastation of the

Hundred Years War, which lasted throughout the 14th century. A canonical visitation
of fifty of the priories of the Order in 1460 showed most of them to be barely occupied, if not abandoned.

Suppression and later history

The Order was dispersed during the French Revolution. In November 1789, all property of the Catholic Church was declared to be the property of the nation. On 17 August 1792, a Revolutionary decree ordered evacuation of all monasteries, to be completed by 1 October 1792. At that time, there were still some 200 nuns and a small community of monks in residence at Fontevraud. The last abbess, Julie Sophie Charlotte de Pardaillan d'Antin, is said to have died in poverty in Paris in 1797.[4] The abbey became a prison in 1804.[1]

The prison was planned to hold 1,000 prisoners and the former abbey required major changes, including new barracks in addition to the transformation of monastic buildings into dormitories, workshops, and common areas. Prisoners—men, women and children—began arriving in 1814. Eventually it held some 2,000 prisoners, earning the prison the reputation of being the "toughest in France after

Vichy Government, some French Resistance
prisoners were shot there.

In 1963 it was given to the

French Ministry of Culture,[1] and a major restoration was undertaken. In 1975 the Centre culturel de l'Ouest was formed to preserve the abbey and promote it as a cultural venue. The complex was opened to the public in 1985. Restoration of the abbey church according to the earlier restoration under the architect Lucien Magne was completed in 2006.[5]

The order was revived by Mme Rose in 1806 as one for women only and following a modified rule.[6]

List of abbesses

Abbess Gabrielle de Rochechouart (1645–1704)
Abbess Julie de Pardaillan (1725–1797)

Architecture

Church

  • West facade
    West facade
  • Chevet
    Chevet
  • Nave interior
    Nave interior
  • View of choir, ambulatory, and choir chapel
    View of choir, ambulatory, and choir chapel

Cloister

Chapter house

Features

The abbey was originally the site of the graves of

Basilica of St Denis in 1793 by order of the French government.[9]

Princess Thérèse of France
, daughter of Louis XV, is also buried here.

Cultural references

The cloister galleries

Miracle de la rose
, although there is no evidence that Genet was ever imprisoned there himself.

La Cage aux Rossignols (A Cage of Nightingales), a French film released in 1945, was filmed at the abbey.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Melot (1971)
  2. ^ a b Catholic Encyclopedia Robert of Arbissel
  3. ^ Mews 2006, p. 135.
  4. ^ a b "Reigning Abbess Julie Sophie Charlotte de Pardaillan d'Antin of the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud (France)". Women in Power.
  5. ^ "Transformation de l'Abbaye en Prison". l'Abbaye de Fontevraud. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
  6. ^ Cross, F. L., ed. (1957) The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. London: Oxford University Press; p. 512
  7. ^ Vincent 2007, p. 331.
  8. ^ Berman 2018, p. 75.
  9. ^ Lindsay, Suzanne Glover (18 October 2014). "The Revolutionary Exhumations at St-Denis, 1793". Center for the Study of Material & Visual Cultures of Religion. Yale University.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • [Nicquet, H.] (1586) Histoire de l'ordre de Fontevrault. Angers, 1586; and Paris, 1643
  • Édouard (pseud. of A. Biron) (1873–74) Fontevrault et ses monuments; ou histoire de cette royale abbaye depuis sa fondation jusqu'à sa suppression, 1100–1793. 2 vols.
  • Histoire de l'ordre de Fontevrault, 1100–1908; by the Religious of Sainte-Marie-de-Fontevrault-de-Boulaur (afterwards at Vera in Navarre). 3 vols. Auch, 1911–15

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fontevraud Abbey.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fontevraud_Abbey&oldid=1203810514"