According to commit4fitness, the monastery was founded in 1119 by Bernhard von Clairvaux and is one of the oldest Cistercian monasteries in France. Unlike many other monasteries, Fontenay, about 60 km northwest of Dijon, was largely spared by the French Revolution. All the buildings from the Romanesque period have been preserved to this day.
Fontenay Cistercian Abbey: facts
|Official title:||former Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay|
|Cultural monument:||from St. Bernhard founded Fontenay Abbey with a pigeon house, bakery and blacksmith shop, 53 m long and 13.50 m wide, an impressive testimony to monastic craftsmanship|
|Location:||in a wood near Montbard, northwest of Dijon|
|Meaning:||simple masterpiece of Romanesque architecture and example of the self-sufficiency of an early monastic community of the Cistercians|
Fontenay Cistercian Abbey: History
|1745||Destruction of the refectory|
|1791||Sale; Setting up a paper mill|
|1837-1913||Restoration of the abbey|
The taming of harsh nature
“God is calm and calms everything, and to look at the calm means to rest yourself” was the highest commandment of the eloquent doctor of the church, St. Bernard, who, hardly appointed abbot of the Clairvaux monastery, set out with twelve confreres to found new monasteries. On the way they reached an uninhabited valley near the present-day city of Châtillon-sur-Seine. Surrounded by dense forests, a Cistercian hermitage was soon built in complete seclusion. If the Benedictines chose remote hills for their monasteries, the Cistercians, who emerged from the reform of the Benedictine order, preferred hidden river valleys.
As more and more hermits joined the community near Châtillon-sur-Seine, the brothers, who also called themselves St. was named on the monastery grounds Fontenay. After twelve years of construction, the Notre-Dame Abbey, France’s oldest surviving church of the Cistercian order, was ceremoniously consecrated. Almost half a century later, the entire complex with all the buildings for the daily needs of a self-contained monastery was completed. Fontenay, which had been protected from the outside world by a wall since the 15th century, was now able to provide for itself. Saint Bernard had long since returned to Clairvaux, to devote himself to his campaign against the infidels. He tirelessly campaigned among kings and nobles for a crusade to the Holy Land. From the pulpits of the churches in Speyer and Vézelay he also called for the fight against the anti-Christ. Less famous than the older Clairvaux, Fontenay does not represent the culmination of Cistercian monastery architecture in terms of architectural history; but despite later changes, this monastery is without a doubt the best-preserved abbey that was built during the lifetime of St. Bernard. Fontenay does not represent the culmination of Cistercian monastery architecture in terms of architectural history; but despite later changes, this monastery is without a doubt the best-preserved abbey that was built during the lifetime of St. Bernard. Fontenay does not represent the culmination of Cistercian monastery architecture in terms of architectural history; but despite later changes, this monastery is without a doubt the best-preserved abbey that was built during the lifetime of St. Bernard.
The model ground plan for Fontenay was provided by the mother monastery Cîteaux, which was the inspiration for all the new foundations. According to the binding arrangement of the individual buildings, the church was planned to be in the north, with the cloister in the center, which was also the center of community life. The chapter house with a hall, over which the monks’ sleeping quarters stretched, served as the meeting place. The monastery kitchen rose to the south, next to it the refectory, as the dining room is called. The vaulted cellar and storage building, on the upper floor of which the lay brothers were housed, were placed in the west. And to the east, near the river, there were forges and water mills as well as barns for the harvest. This rigid scheme, which was based on the ancient villa, could only be deviated from.
True to the rules of the ascetic order, which by the beginning of the 14th century had founded more than 700 abbeys all over Europe, the decoration of the monasteries had to be dispensed with almost entirely. Since towers, whether bulky or slender, were frowned upon, the simple abbey church received only a modest roof turret. Colored church windows and plastic ornaments were also deliberately avoided so that the monks were not distracted in their reflection on God by the appealing splendor of forms. Notre-Dame owes its elegance to the interior design and the harmonious dimensions of the high pointed arch arcades in the simply structured limestone walls of the main nave and the rhythmic structure in the form of vaulted girders. The figure of Maria created around 1300, whom Bernhard particularly revered,
The “monastic thrift”, which is exemplarily expressed in the building of Fontenay, which was first restored in 1906, contrasts with the pioneering achievements of the Cistercians in the intellectual, craft and agricultural fields: While some monks were busy copying valuable manuscripts in the writing room, others cleared valuable manuscripts With the lay brothers forests, reclaimed land and finally established an independent grain and dairy farming system. Spatial planning, urban growth and road construction have left little traces of this early landscaping in Western Europe.