Fontevraud Abbey

Robert d'Arbrissel (1045 – 1116) started as an itinerant preacher, was exiled to Paris. Then was an archpriest fighting lay investiture and clerical concubinage. His reforming zeal aroused such enmity that he was compelled to leave the diocese.

He became a hermit. His piety and eloquence attracted many followers, for whom in 1096 he founded the monastery of La Roé.

Robert left the convent and, living in the utmost destitution, worked again as an itinerant preacher. His eloquence drew crowds and provoked the church hierarchy. So in 1100, he was requested to give up the nomadic life and to settle down with his followers. Robert founded the "double monastery" Fontevraud Abbey.

He could bear the sedentary life only for a short while. He appointed Hersende de Champagne (Heloisa´s mum?) to lead the convent and hit the road again. In 1116 he died in the Priory of Orsan.

From the very beginning the convent had a strong support from the aristocracy, above all from the House of Plantagenet, who had chosen this abbey as a burial place. Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most powerful ladies of medieval times, joined the convent, when she retired from the political powergame in 1200.

The convent was successful and existed upto the French Revolution.

In 1804 Napoleon signed a decree, transforming the abbey (once model of the "ideal city") into a prison. Holding upto 2000 prisoners, the prison was known to be of the "toughest in France".

After the last prisoner left Fontevraud in 1983, the abbey was rebuilt and renovated. Seen here is the former refectory.