Abbey Church at Fontevrault

France
Cultural Center

Abbey Church at Fontevrault

The first permanent structures were built between 1110 and 1119. The abbey was a double monastery, which means that both monks and nuns occupied the same site. The Order of Fontevrault became an international success, with monasteries throughout Europe. In the early years the Plantagenets were benefactors of the abbey and while Isabella d'Anjou was abbess, Henry II's wife Eleanor of Aquitaine became a nun here, as later did her daughter, Jeanne of England.

The abbey became a prison from 1804 to 1963, including the war years. The plaque on the right reads "In this abbey, converted into a prison, members of the Resistance were incarcerated from 1940 to 1944 for fighting against Nazism. 14 died of ill treatment, 10 were shot and hundreds deported to concentration camps experienced the horror of Nazi barbarism. Do not forget them". In 1963 the abbey was given to the French Ministry of Culture.

 The restoration of the abbey church started in the early twentieth century under the architect Lucien Magne and continues into the twenty-first. The abbey was originally site of the tombs of King Henry II of England, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, their son Richard I of England (The Lionheart), their daughter Jeanne of England, their grandson Raymond VII of Toulouse, and Isabella of Angoulême, wife of their son King John. However, there is no remaining corporal presence of Henry, Eleanor, Richard or the others on the site. Their remains were destroyed during the French Revolution.

http://www.midi-france.info/190202_fontevraud.htm