Religious sites in France

Beaulieu-lès-Loches Abbey

A great abbey church named Belli Locus dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre was founded in the early 11th century by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, who is buried in the chancel. In 1011 Pope Sergius IV donated some relics of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria and Fulk himself a piece of the Holy Sepulchre he stole from his visit to Jerusalem to the abbey. The pope settled a dispute over the abbey's consecration with the Archbishop of T ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Beaulieu-lès-Loches, France

Valmont Abbey

Valmont Abbey (Notre-Dame-du-Pré de Valmont) was a Benedictine abbey founded in 1169 by Nicolas d"Estouteville with Benedictines split off from Hambye Abbey. It never held more than 25 monks and was destroyed and rebuilt several times, with the abbey church only truly completed in the 16th century – countess Marie II of Saint-Pol is buried in it. The abbey buildings were built from 1678 to 1782 under Lo ...
Founded: 1169 | Location: Valmont, France

La Clarté-Dieu Abbey

The Abbey of La Clarté-Dieu was a Cistercian monastery. The abbey was founded in 1239 by the executors of Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, as one of a pair, the other being Netley Abbey in Hampshire, England. The bishop had conceived the idea of founding a pair of monasteries some years before and had begun collecting the necessary endowments for them, but his death in 1238 prevented him from completing ...
Founded: 1239 | Location: Eaunes, France

Saint-Girons Church

L"église Saint-Girons edifice is in the Gothic architectural style. Its grand size made it the largest Gothic church in Béarn in the 15th century. It is most famous for its heart of oak frame which represents the Medieval architecture style. In the 16th century, Monein was a growing village with over 5,000 residents. The old Romanesque church Sant-Pée became too small for the residents, so it was decided ...
Founded: 1464-1530 | Location: Monein, France

L'Étanche Abbey

L"Étanche Abbey is a former Premonstratensian monastery founded in the 12th century, the ruins of which are near the modern village of Deuxnouds-aux-Bois, in the commune of Lamorville. The abbey of Notre-Dame de l"Étanche was founded in about 1144 by Philippe, abbot of Belval, in a secluded valley then known as Faverolles, near Deuxnouds-aux-Bois. The first patrons of the foundation were Albéron de Chiny, b ...
Founded: c. 1144 | Location: Lamorville, France

Notre Dame de Guibray Church

The church of the suburb of Guibray, situated outside the walls of Falaise and to the south, occupies the primitive site of a pagan sanctuary, transformed into a chapel, in the Merovingian period, before 650. In c. 1000, a new church was built, and re-worked between the end of the 11th century and the end of the 12th century, on a Romanesque plan with a central nave, two side aisles and a short transept, at the instigati ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Falaise, France

Belloc Abbey

Belloc Abbey, Abbaye Notre-Dame de Belloc, is a Benedictine monastery located in Urt, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. It was founded in 1875. The community, which comprises about 40 monks, follows the Rule of St. Benedict and belongs to the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation. The brothers offer the hospitality of their house to men, households and groups requiring silence or spiritual guidance. To support themselves they pri ...
Founded: 1875 | Location: Urt, France

Notre Dame des Cyclistes

The chapel of Notre-Dame des Cyclistes is situated in the commune of Labastide-d"Armagnac. The chapel is all that remains of a 12th-century fortress of the Knights Templar. The Château de Géou was razed by the Black Prince in 1355. In 1958, Father Joseph Massie, pastor of Créon-d"Armagnac, Mauvezin-d"Armagnac and Lagrange, was inspired by the chapel of Madonna del Ghisallo in Italy to make a similar ...
Founded: 12th century | Location: Labastide-d'Armagnac, France

Saint-Pierre Church

The tower of Saint-Pierre (St. Peter"s) church dates from the first half of the 12th century. The choir was added in the 14-15th century and rebuilt in the 19th century with a new window. The nave was completely rebuilt in 1903-1906.
Founded: 12th century | Location: Lion-sur-Mer, France

Lachalade Abbey Church

Former Cistercian abbey in Lachalade was founded in the early 12th century. The new abbey church was completed in 1340. During the centuries abbey suffered from wars and lootings and it started to decline in the 16th century. Restoration took place in late 17th century during the abbey life reformation, but it was dissolved in 1791 during French Revolution. Today the abbey church is restored
Founded: c. 1120 | Location: Lachalade, France

Abbey of St. Vincent

The Royal Abbey of St. Vincent was a former monastery of canons regular in Senlis, Oise, which was dissolved during the French Revolution. Late in their history, they became part of a new congregation of canons regular with the motherhouse at the Royal Abbey of St Genevieve in Paris, known as the Genofévains, widely respected for their institutions of learning. The abbey was founded in 1065 by Queen Anne of Ki ...
Founded: 1065 | Location: Senlis, France

Igny Abbey

Igny Abbey or Val d"Igny Abbey is a Cistercian abbey located in Arcis-le-Ponsart. It was founded by the Archbishop of Reims, Rainaud II de Martigny, who provided land at Igny in 1128. The abbey flourished and in its heyday housed over 500 monks and owned more than 5,000 hectares of land. As with other Cistercian monasteries, growth at Igny slowed from the later 13th century. In the 14th century the abbey suffered b ...
Founded: 1128 | Location: Arcis-le-Ponsart, France

Fontaine-Guérard Abbey

At the beginning of the 12th century, there was a simple priory on the site of current abbey. Around 1190, Robert, Earl of Leicester founded the Abbey of Fontaine-Guérard. The nuns joined the order of Cîteaux in 1207 as Daughter-abbey of Clairvaux, but did not receive Abbey status until 1253. By this date, the buildings we see here were complete; the church was consecrated in 1218. Sold for the “national ...
Founded: 1190 | Location: Radepont, France

Saint-Martin Church

St. Martin church is a splendid building with an exceptionally beautiful Flamboyant Gothic chancel. It also contains a major work by Renaissance sculptor Ligier Richier, his Pietà. The church has been a historic monument since 1846 and it contains numerous works of art that have also been listed as historic monuments in their own right. The church was built in the 12th-13th centuries and it has been enlarged later.
Founded: 12th century | Location: Étain, France

Bonnefont Abbey

Bonnefont Abbey was founded in 1136 or 1137 and was a daughter monastery of Morimond Abbey. The land for monastery was donated by the Countess of Montpezat. During the French Revolution the abbey was dissolved. Today only the tower from the 15th century, the gatehouse and parts of the wing from the 13th century are preserved. The church has been completely abandoned since 1856.
Founded: 1136 | Location: Proupiary, France

Boulbonne Abbey

Boulbonne Abbey was first founded in 1129 about 14km from its current location. It was burned down and demolished during the Wars of Religion in 1567 by Huguenots. The reconstruction of the abbey on its current site started in 1632. The church was consecrated in 1742. After the French Revolution most of the buildings have disappeared, but there are still some facades, the entrance brick portal, the chapter house, ...
Founded: 1632 | Location: Cintegabelle, France

Valognes Abbey

In 1623, Jean de Raval, Lord Tourlaville, and his wife Madeleine de la Vigne offered de la Vigne"s cousin enough money to establish a monastery in Valognes that de la Vigne"s would become the first abbess or 'superior'. The following year, the Bishop of Séez gave permission for a group of nuns to join the new abbey. Plague prevented the nuns from taking up their new posts and construction did n ...
Founded: 1631 | Location: Valognes, France

Tournay Abbey

A priory was first established on the site of Tournay Abbey in the 11th century, which became an abbey in the 17th century. It was suppressed during the French Revolution. A new abbey was founded in the 1930s in Madiran and was transferred to Tournay in 1952, the year after construction of a new monastery. The building was completed in 1958. The abbey remains active and houses a community of approximately 20 monks ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Tournay, France

Bricquebec Abbey

Bricquebec Abbeyn (Notre-Dame de Grâce de Bricquebec) was founded in 1824 by father Bon Onfroy. The abbey church was completed in 1834 and the priory was established in 1836.
Founded: 1824 | Location: Bricquebec, France

Saint-Sever-Calvados Abbey

Saint-Sever-Calvados Abbey was founded by Guillaume Sanche, the lord of Gascony in the late 10th century. According to the monastic chronicles, this was as the result of a vow he made after the battle of Taller, in Gascony, in which he defeated the Vikings (982). In 1060, after a fire, the abbey was reconstructed on the model of Cluny under the direction of the abbot Gregori de Montaner. The Saint-Sever Beatus was the wor ...
Founded: 10th century | Location: Saint-Sever-Calvados, France

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Monte d'Accoddi

Monte d"Accoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari. The site consists of a massive raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or earlier, with the oldest parts dated to around 4,000–3,650 BC.

The site was discovered in 1954 in a field owned by the Segni family. No chambers or entrances to the mound have been found, leading to the presumption it was an altar, a temple or a step pyramid. It may have also served an observational function, as its square plan is coordinated with the cardinal points of the compass.

The initial Ozieri structure was abandoned or destroyed around 3000 BC, with traces of fire found in the archeological evidence. Around 2800 BC the remains of the original structure were completely covered with a layered mixture of earth and stone, and large blocks of limestone were then applied to establish a second platform, truncated by a step pyramid (36 m × 29 m, about 10 m in height), accessible by means of a second ramp, 42 m long, built over the older one. This second temple resembles contemporary Mesopotamian ziggurats, and is attributed to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture.

Archeological excavations from the chalcolithic Abealzu-Filigosa layers indicate the Monte d"Accoddi was used for animal sacrifice, with the remains of sheep, cattle, and swine recovered in near equal proportions. It is among the earliest known sacrificial sites in Western Europe.

The site appears to have been abandoned again around 1800 BC, at the onset of the Nuragic age.

The monument was partially reconstructed during the 1980s. It is open to the public and accessible by the old route of SS131 highway, near the hamlet of Ottava. It is 14,9 km from Sassari and 45 km from Alghero. There is no public transportation to the site. The opening times vary throughout the year.