Fontenelles Abbey was an Augustinian monastery in the former commune of Saint-André-d'Ornay. The abbey was founded in 1210 by local landowners Guillaume de Mauléon, seigneur of Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, and his wife Béatrice de Machecoul, lady of the manors of La Roche-sur-Yon and Luçon. The monastery was originally Benedictine but after a lawsuit broke out between the abbot of Fontenelles and the abbot of Marmoutier, a prestigious Benedictine monastery, the community became Augustinian, as a daughter house of the nearby Chancelade Abbey, in about 1224.
The church was damaged during the Hundred Years' War. In 1533 there were only 9 monks here. In 1562 during the Wars of Religion Protestants attacked the abbey, killing some of the monks, set it on fire and largely destroyed it. In particular they damaged the church to the extent that part of nave collapsed, leaving it permanently shortened, with a Greek cross floor plan. Protestants attacked it again in the 1620s but were forced to repair the damage. The monastery was restored from 1669 onwards by the canons of the Congrégation de France.
The abbey, by that time containing only three monks, was suppressed during the French Revolution in 1791. In 1794 the passage of the 'infernal columns' through the Vendée left it entirely abandoned. The site was later used for agriculture: the church was turned into a barn and the abbot's lodging into accommodation for labourers. Continued neglect brought about the collapse of most of the remaining buildings including in 1935 the collapse of the south transept of what was left of the church. The site remains private property.
The monastery was built in granite in the Angevin Gothic style, transitional between Romanesque and Gothic. The truncated church is the most intact structure remaining, and contains the tomb of either the foundress Béatrice de Machecoul or her daughter Jeanne, Vicomtesse de Thouars, consisting of a recumbent effigy (gisant) in an arched recess (arcosolium) with small figures. There are also substantial remains of the chapter room but the rest of the former structures are in ruins.
References:The ancient Argos Theater was built in 320 BC. and is located in Argos, Greece against Larissa Hill. Nearby from this site is Agora, Roman Odeon, and the Baths of Argos. The theater is one of the largest architectural developments in Greece and was renovated in ca 120 AD.
The Hellenistic theater at Argos is cut into the hillside of the Larisa, with 90 steps up a steep incline, forming a narrow rectilinear cavea. Among the largest theaters in Greece, it held about 20,000 spectators and is divided by two landings into three horizontal sections. Staircases further divide the cavea into four cunei, corresponding to the tribes of Argos A high wall was erected to prevent unauthorized access into the theatron and may have helped the acoustics, but it is said the sound quality is still very good today.
Around 120 CE, both theaters were renovated in the Roman style.