Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
€10, daily April-mid-Nov 10:00-18:00, mid-Nov-March
10:00-12:00 & 14:00-17:00, tel. 03 80 92 15 00,
www.abbayedefontenay.com
.
Getting There:
The abbey is a 10-minute drive north of Montbard. There's no bus
service—allow about €24 round-trip for a taxi from Montbard's train station (taxi mobile
06 08 26 61 55 or 06 08 99 21 13), or rent a bike at Montbard's TI and ride 45 minutes
each way (Montbard TI tel. 03 80 92 53 81).
Background:
Thisabbey—oneoftheoldestCistercianabbeysinFrance—wasfoun-
ded in 1118 by St. Bernard as a back-to-basics reaction to the excesses of Benedictine
abbeys, such as Cluny. The Cistercians worked to recapture the simplicity, solitude, and
poverty of the early Church. Bernard created “a horrible vast solitude” in the forest, where
his monks could live like the desert fathers of the Old Testament. They chose marshland
(“Cistercian” is derived from “marshy bogs”) and strove to be separate from the world
(whichrequiredtheindustriousself-sufficiencytheseabbeysweresoadeptat).Themove-
ment spread, essentially colonizing Europe religiously. In 1200, there were more than 500
such monasteries and abbeys in Europe.
Like the Cistercian movement in general, Fontenay flourished through the 13th-15th
centuries. A 14th-century proverb said, “Wherever the wind blows, to Fontenay money
flows.”Fontenaythrivedasaprosperous“mini-city”fornearly700years,untiltheFrench
Revolution, when it became the property of the nation and was eventually sold.
