Abbaye royale Notre-Dame de Celles-sur-Belle: A Royal Abbey in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Aquitaine, French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page14 sections
History
Abbaye royale Notre-Dame de Celles-sur-Belle is a former royal abbey in France that grew from an earlier monastic foundation dating from the end of the eleventh century. The Notre-Dame-de-Celles priory was raised to abbey status in 1137 by the bishop of Poitiers. Its position on the Via Turonensis, one of the principal medieval pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela through Tours, made it an important stopping place for pilgrims.
Medieval foundation and rebuilding
The abbey church was rebuilt in the fifteenth century on the orders of Louis XI, king of France from 1461 to 1483. This rebuilding formed part of the church’s later medieval development, while elements of the first construction remained incorporated into the fabric.
Destruction and seventeenth-century reconstruction
In 1568, Huguenots, French Protestants associated with the Reformed tradition, destroyed the abbey during the French Wars of Religion. These conflicts were a series of sixteenth-century struggles between Catholics and Protestants. Reconstruction followed in the seventeenth century under François Le Duc, known as Toscane, whose plans provided for the rebuilding of both the abbey and the conventual buildings in the Louis XIV style.
Revolution, parish use, and renewed religious activity
During the French Revolution, the abbey’s property was sold as national property, the religious community was expelled, and the church was closed. In 1789, the French bishop and statesman Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord took possession of his episcopal see by proxy. During the Vendée Wars, the abbey church and conventual residence were converted into detention facilities.
After the Concordat of 1801, the agreement between Napoleonic France and the papacy that re-established regulated Catholic worship in France, the church became the parish church of Notre-Dame. A pilgrimage that had fallen into disuse was revived in 1899. The Montfortians began efforts to restore the abbey’s religious character in 1921, but this work ended definitively in 1970.
Public ownership and protection
The commune of Celles-sur-Belle has owned the abbey church since 23 April 1971. The church became a protected historic monument in 1977, when restoration began under the direction of the chief architect of the historic-monuments service. The Saint-Gobert residence and the remains of the medieval cloister received the same protection on 31 July 2000.
Remains
Abbey church
Facade and entrance
The church has an imposing facade dominated by a tall bell-tower porch. Beneath it is a Romanesque portal with six polylobed archivolts, curved decorated moldings following the contour of the arch. The portal is a surviving element of the first construction. Sculpted capitals on the north facade also belong to that earlier building and carry vegetal, animal, and human motifs.
A monumental staircase leads into the church. Its off-center position creates an apparent imbalance in the facade because the north wing was never completed.
Interior and organ
Inside, the church is arranged around a luminous nave with high pillars and vaults. Side aisles bordered by chapels extend along it. The present organ was made by Olivier Chevron and completed in 2016. It has 58 stops, four manuals, and a pedalboard.
Abbey and conventual buildings
Rebuilt monastic complex
The abbey and conventual buildings lie below the church. Rebuilt according to François Le Duc’s plans, they follow the Louis XIV style and overlook the Belle valley and formal French gardens. Remains of earlier monastic buildings survive at numerous points across the site, indicating the scale of the first abbey destroyed during the sixteenth-century Wars of Religion.
South wing and refectory
The south wing contains a large refectory arranged in six bays, with access to the former kitchen. This surviving arrangement preserves part of the practical organization of the rebuilt monastic complex.
Rear courtyard and Saint-Hilaire crypt
A remarkable ambulatory in the rear courtyard leads to the Pillar Room and to the crypt of Saint-Hilaire, the first parish church of Celles-sur-Belle. The crypt is associated with the only Romanesque part still visible at the site.
Museum and conventual residence
On the first floor of the conventual buildings, a museum contains reconstructions of an abbot’s chamber and a monastic cell. Several notable people stayed in the reconstructed abbot’s chamber. The conventual residence later became private property and lost its original roof structure and roofing.
