Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
€9.50, audioguide-€4.50 (kid version available); April-Oct daily
9:30-18:30, until 19:30 July-Aug; Nov-Dec and Feb-March Tue-Sun 9:30-17:30, closed
Mon; closed Jan, tel. 02 41 51 73 52,
www.abbayedefontevraud.com
. Spring for the help-
ful audioguide (the free English leaflet gives light coverage). There's free parking 100
yards beyond the abbey entrance.
Background:
The order of Fontevraud, founded in 1101, was an experiment of rare
audacity. This was a double monastery, where both men and women lived under the au-
thorityofanabbesswhileobservingtherulesofSt.Benedict(butinfluencedbythecultof
the Virgin Mary). Men and women lived separately and chastely within the abbey walls.
The order thrived, and in the 16th century, this was the administrative head of more than
150 monasteries. Four communities lived within these walls until the Revolution. In 1804,
Napoleon made the abbey a prison, which actually helped preserve the building. It func-
tioned as a prison for 150 years, until 1963, with five wooden floors filled with cells.
Designed to house 800 inmates, the prison was notoriously harsh. Life expectancy here
was eight months.
