Fontevraud Abbey - Resting Place of Richard the Lionheart
The order of Fontevraud was founded in 1101, and the Fontevraud Abbey was consecrated eighteen years later in 1119. The Abbey Cathedral is spiritual heart of the monastery.
Interestingly, this French abbey is the resting place of one of the royal dynasties of England. Fifteen Plantagenet Royals are buried in the vaults, including three of the most famous; King Henry II, his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and their son, Richard the Lionheart. Their effigies lie in the abbey nave facing the altar.
It was the custom for great lineages to pick a church as a necropolis. Since Henry was the Duke of Anjou and Eleanor brought all of South-west France to the Plantagenet dynasty with her dowry, it’s not surprising they would choose Fontevraud as their resting place. Eleanor loved the abbey and endowed it with many donations. She also lived the last five years of her life at the abbey and died there.
During the last year of Eleanor’s life, the King Philippe Auguste of France, dismantled all the French holdings of the Plantagenet royal family, forcing the rest of the dynasty to pick English cathedrals for their burials. One exception to this was Isabelle of Angouleme, wife of King John of England. Her effigy is the fourth one lying in the Abbey nave.
When you walk into the peaceful glowing expanse of the abbey, all is quiet and it is easy to visualize its past holy inhabitants silently making their way through the tall vaulted spaces to perform their duties as part of the order.
Fontevraud was an unusual and unique Abbey from its very foundation because both men and women, lived and worshipped there, though the monks’ priory was outside the main walls. It was a double monastery made up a total of five communities, under the authority of the Abbess and under the rules of St. Benedict. It was ruled for nearly 700 years by these aristocratic abbesses and fifteen of them were of royal blood. They lived together that way until the French Revolution.
You can imagine what havoc that arrangement tended to wreak time and time again over the centuries. The disobedience and lack of discipline among the monks was constant and they constantly opposed the abbess’ authority. The Pope was continually called upon to intervene to restore order.
Even with this challenge, the work of the abbey continued. They served the community as a spiritual cloister for upper class and devout women, a place for manual labor for the monks, an infirmary for the sick and a refuge for lepers and repentant prostitutes.
The “Grand-Moutier” or cloisters of the main convent are the largest and possibly the finest in France. They have Gothic and Renaissance vaulting. The abbey was ravaged by destruction during the French Revolution, so there has been much restoration work done over the years. The upper galleries were constructed in the 19th century.
The Chapter House paintings are from the 16th century. The Chapter House was used for work. The Abbess held chapter meetings there, setting out the day to day business and making other important decisions, with a council of nuns. During the reign of Francois I, the room was renovated between 1541 and 1543 by Louis de Bourbon. The theme of the wall frescoes is the passion of Christ and portraits of the abbesses are integrated into the paintings.
The Refectory was where the nuns would have taken their meals and therefore is a long open room. At one end, a nun would sit in a pulpit (now gone) and read aloud from religious texts while everyone ate their meal. The room was built before 1504 and the Gothic vaults rest on thick Romanesque walls.
The Romanesque kitchens and smoke house are a wonder to look at from the exterior. The Impressively huge construction is composed of an octagonal central space capped with a ventilation hood which is shaped like a cone and is surrounded by small roundedsemi-circular mini-towers all of which have their own cone-like roofs topped with mushroom shaped vents which poke up from their peaks. The overall effect is rather whimsical.
All of the centuries of busy monastic enterprise ended with the French revolution when the Abbey was ravaged and it became a prison for the next 150 years. You can visit the dormitories and prison cells known as “hen’s cages” which are part of the few visible remains of the prison.
Interestingly, this French abbey is the resting place of one of the royal dynasties of England. Fifteen Plantagenet Royals are buried in the vaults, including three of the most famous; King Henry II, his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and their son, Richard the Lionheart. Their effigies lie in the abbey nave facing the altar.
It was the custom for great lineages to pick a church as a necropolis. Since Henry was the Duke of Anjou and Eleanor brought all of South-west France to the Plantagenet dynasty with her dowry, it’s not surprising they would choose Fontevraud as their resting place. Eleanor loved the abbey and endowed it with many donations. She also lived the last five years of her life at the abbey and died there.
During the last year of Eleanor’s life, the King Philippe Auguste of France, dismantled all the French holdings of the Plantagenet royal family, forcing the rest of the dynasty to pick English cathedrals for their burials. One exception to this was Isabelle of Angouleme, wife of King John of England. Her effigy is the fourth one lying in the Abbey nave.
When you walk into the peaceful glowing expanse of the abbey, all is quiet and it is easy to visualize its past holy inhabitants silently making their way through the tall vaulted spaces to perform their duties as part of the order.
Fontevraud was an unusual and unique Abbey from its very foundation because both men and women, lived and worshipped there, though the monks’ priory was outside the main walls. It was a double monastery made up a total of five communities, under the authority of the Abbess and under the rules of St. Benedict. It was ruled for nearly 700 years by these aristocratic abbesses and fifteen of them were of royal blood. They lived together that way until the French Revolution.
You can imagine what havoc that arrangement tended to wreak time and time again over the centuries. The disobedience and lack of discipline among the monks was constant and they constantly opposed the abbess’ authority. The Pope was continually called upon to intervene to restore order.
Even with this challenge, the work of the abbey continued. They served the community as a spiritual cloister for upper class and devout women, a place for manual labor for the monks, an infirmary for the sick and a refuge for lepers and repentant prostitutes.
The “Grand-Moutier” or cloisters of the main convent are the largest and possibly the finest in France. They have Gothic and Renaissance vaulting. The abbey was ravaged by destruction during the French Revolution, so there has been much restoration work done over the years. The upper galleries were constructed in the 19th century.
The Chapter House paintings are from the 16th century. The Chapter House was used for work. The Abbess held chapter meetings there, setting out the day to day business and making other important decisions, with a council of nuns. During the reign of Francois I, the room was renovated between 1541 and 1543 by Louis de Bourbon. The theme of the wall frescoes is the passion of Christ and portraits of the abbesses are integrated into the paintings.
The Refectory was where the nuns would have taken their meals and therefore is a long open room. At one end, a nun would sit in a pulpit (now gone) and read aloud from religious texts while everyone ate their meal. The room was built before 1504 and the Gothic vaults rest on thick Romanesque walls.
The Romanesque kitchens and smoke house are a wonder to look at from the exterior. The Impressively huge construction is composed of an octagonal central space capped with a ventilation hood which is shaped like a cone and is surrounded by small roundedsemi-circular mini-towers all of which have their own cone-like roofs topped with mushroom shaped vents which poke up from their peaks. The overall effect is rather whimsical.
All of the centuries of busy monastic enterprise ended with the French revolution when the Abbey was ravaged and it became a prison for the next 150 years. You can visit the dormitories and prison cells known as “hen’s cages” which are part of the few visible remains of the prison.