Chartreuse de Prémol: A Female Carthusian Monastery in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page12 sections
History
Chartreuse de Prémol was a female Carthusian monastery at Prémol in Vaulnaveys-le-Haut, France, founded in 1234 within the Carthusian province of Provence and the Diocese of Grenoble. The Carthusian Order combined communal worship with a strongly solitary monastic life, and the monastery was dedicated to Saint Mary.
Before the Carthusian Foundation
A religious establishment already stood at Prémol during the second half of the twelfth century. Papal bulls issued in 1179 and 1182 refer to it, and by the early thirteenth century it depended on the Provostry of Oulx, an ecclesiastical institution governed by a provost, in the Dauphiné beyond the mountains.
In 1234, Béatrice de Montferrat, the second wife of Dauphin Guigues VI of Viennois, requested the lands at Prémol from the prior of Saint-Jean-de-Vaulnaveys. This community of Augustinian canons was dependent on Oulx. The canons granted the lands to Béatrice, who offered them to the nuns at the beginning of 1235.
Princely Burial and Medieval Development
Prémol became a burial place for the family that had helped establish it. Guigues VII of Viennois, Béatrice’s son, was buried there in 1270, and Béatrice was also buried at the monastery. Their tombs stood in the church near the high altar.
The monastery held extensive lands. Its possessions covered 397 hectares and extended toward Chamrousse, with estates at Les Alberges in Vaulnaveys, Moras-en-Valloire, Meylan, La Tronche, Grenoble, including the Tour Prémol, and the Oisans, including Lake Saint Laurent. The name Chamrousse first appears in 1260 as calmen ruffa, while vineyards at Meylan and La Tronche are mentioned in thirteenth-century records.
Damage, Fire, and Reconstruction
Repeated damage affected the monastery over the centuries. An incident occurred in 1467, and the Wars of Religion, a series of sixteenth-century conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in France, brought major devastation in 1562 and 1563. The effect of these attacks on the princely tombs remains uncertain.
A devastating fire in 1707 led to extensive rebuilding during the early eighteenth century. The nuns returned in 1715, while Dom le Masson, Prior General of the Carthusian Order, closely supervised the reconstruction. The resulting arrangement, including the coexistence of nuns with a vicar and monks, had close parallels with the female Carthusian house at Salettes.
Revolution and Later Carthusian Foundations
The law of 1790 suppressing religious communities legally abolished the monastery. The nuns continued living at Prémol for more than a year by tolerance, but the house closed and was sold in 1791 during the French Revolution.
After neighbouring inhabitants entered the property and removed materials such as wood and iron, time and climate accelerated the deterioration of the buildings. When the Carthusians regained permission to return in 1816, Sister Hévrard de Fond-Galand acquired a former Augustinian convent at L’Osier near Parménie in late 1819. She acquired the Beauregard estate at Coublevie in 1820, and the nuns settled there in October 1821. The Parménie foundation had originated at Prémol and had been established in 1252.
In 1821, the nuns transferred the remains of some former companions from the Prémol cemetery to Beauregard. Béatrice de Montferrat and Guigues VII were not included in that transfer, and their tombs later became overgrown.
Protection and Recent Conservation
Chartreuse de Prémol and its grounds received protection as a natural site through an order dated 2 December 1943. Archaeological prospecting in 2025 included LiDAR, a laser-based method for mapping ground surfaces and identifying features concealed by vegetation. Excavations were scheduled for summer 2026 by the Grenoble metropolitan authority.
Between 2020 and 2022, surviving arches were consolidated and the gatehouse was reconstructed externally in the form associated with its rebuilding around 1740. These works shaped the present appearance of the surviving complex.
Remains
The ruins lie southwest of the Belledonne range in a wooded setting. Surviving elements include a forest house, the monastery gatehouse, foundations of the small cloister, and a pond. Historical plans and views preserve evidence for the wider arrangement, including representations of the western and eastern façades and a nineteenth-century illustration of the ruins by Victor Cassien.
Entrance and Monastic Layout
Gatehouse
The gatehouse, or porterie, formed the monastery’s entrance and access-control area. Its external reconstruction in 2020 to 2022 follows the appearance associated with the final rebuilding after the 1707 fire and before the French Revolution. An approximately 1715 to 1720 chart preserved in the collection of the Grande Chartreuse monastery depicts the post-fire reconstruction. In that drawing, the entrance gatehouse appears as a group of windowless buildings that differs from the version rebuilt in 1739. The complex can also be recognized on a plan made in 1791.
Small Cloister and Grounds
The foundations of the small cloister survive among the ruins, together with the pond and the forest house. The surviving arches were consolidated during the 2020 to 2022 conservation campaign. The chart from approximately 1715 to 1720 and the later historical plans provide evidence for how these elements belonged to the reconstructed monastic complex.
Church and Princely Tombs
Church Burial Area
The church contained the tombs of Béatrice de Montferrat and Guigues VII near the high altar. Their remains were not moved to Beauregard in 1821. The tombs are now buried beneath vegetation, linking the surviving ruins with the monastery’s medieval foundation and its princely patrons.
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