Sénanque Abbey

Sénanque Abbey (Occitan: abadiá de Senhanca, French: Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque) is a Cistercian abbey near the village of Gordes in the département of the Vaucluse in Provence, France.

First foundation

It was founded in 1148 under the patronage of

.

The young community found patrons in the seigneurs of Simiane, whose support enabled them to build the abbey church, consecrated in 1178. Other structures at Sénanque followed, laid out according to the rule of Cîteaux Abbey, mother house of the Cistercians. Among its existing structures, famed examples of Romanesque architecture, are the abbey church, cloister, dormitory, chapter house and the small calefactory, the one heated space in the austere surroundings, so that the monks could write, for this was their scriptorium. A refectory was added in the 17th century, when some minimal rebuilding of existing walls was undertaken, but the abbey is a remarkably untouched survival, of rare beauty and severity: the capitals of the paired columns in the cloister arcades are reduced to the simplest leaf forms, not to offer sensual distraction.

The abbey church is in the form of a

faces north, as the narrow and secluded valley offered no space for the conventional arrangement.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, Sénanque reached its apogee, operating four mills, seven

, the one remaining monk was expelled and Sénanque itself was sold to a private individual.

Second foundation

The site was repurchased in 1854 for a new community of Cistercian monks of the Immaculate Conception, under a rule less stringent than that of the Trappists. The community was expelled in 1903 and departed to the Order's headquarters, Lérins Abbey on the island of St. Honorat, near Cannes. A small community returned in 1988 as a priory of Lérins.

The

for their livelihood.

It is possible for individuals to arrange to stay at the abbey for spiritual retreat.

Two other early Cistercian abbeys in Provence are

; with Sénanque, they are sometimes referred to as the "Three Sisters of Provence" ("les trois soeurs provençales").

Gallery

References

• Dimier, Père Anselme, 1982: L'art cistercien. Editions Zodiaque: La Pierre-qui-Vire. (in French)
• Fleischhauer, Carsten, 2003: Die Baukunst der Zisterzienser in der Provence: Sénanque - Le Thoronet - Silvacane.. Abteilung Architekturgeschichte des Kunsthistorischen Instituts der Universität zu Köln. Cologne University. (in German)
• Morin-Sauvade, Hélène & Fleischhauer, Carsten, 2002: Sénanque. Editions Zodiaque: Paris. (in French)

External links

• Sénanque Abbey Web site (in French)
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Sénanque
• Gallery of images and groundplan
• Edmond M. Obrecht: "The abbey of Sénanque", bibliography.
• (in Polish) Photos of Senanque Abbey

43°55′42″N 5°11′13″E / 43.92833°N 5.18694°E / 43.92833; 5.18694