La Chartreuse de Neuville

The Chartreuse Notre-Dame des Prés was a Carthusian monastery (Charterhouse) in northern France, at Neuville-sous-Montreuil. The charter of foundation is dated from the chateau d'Hardelot on 15 July 1324; the church was consecrated in 1338.

The foundation, being close to Calais, was liable to disturbance in time of war. Thus it was often sacked by the English during the wars of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and was for a time abandoned. The religious returned when peace was restored.

In 1542 the monastery was again wrecked by the Imperial troops and in the wars of religion fresh troubles attended the community. Finally the house was rebuilt by Dom Bernard Bruyant in the latter part of the seventeenth century and remained undisturbed until the French Revolution. In 1790 the monastery was suppressed and its property sold by auction the following year.

Eighty-two years later the Carthusians repurchased a portion of their old estate and the first stone of the new monastery was laid on 2 April 1872. The work was pushed forward by the Prior, Dom Eusèbe Bergier, and was finished in three years. The monastery contained twenty-four cells in its cloister.

La Chartreuse de Neuville has dozens of cloisters, chapels, a library and other rooms. It was once the home of  the printing press for all the Charterhouses of Europe 1800s. But the equipment was transferred to St Hugh’s Charterhouse (there are plans to have it returned).

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

Neuville-sous-Montreuil, France

Details

Founded: 1324
Category: Religious sites in France
Historical period: Late Capetians (France)