Cormery Abbey was founded by Ithier, abbot of Saint Martin in Tours, in 791. It was then attached to the Abbey of Saint Martin in Tours, and remained so until its dissolution during the Revolution. Despite the damage caused by the Vikings in the second half of the ninth century, which is difficult to quantify, the abbey developed rapidly, and around it the town of Cormery.
In the Middle Ages, the abbey had many possessions in several French provinces and its boats could navigate freely on all the waterways of the kingdom. It was one of the most powerful abbeys in Tours.
The abbey was able to recover from damages it incurred in the Hundred Years' War but it never fully recovered from destructions by the Protestants which it suffered in the Wars of Religion when many of its relics were desecrated and scattered. In spite of the intervention of the Maurists from 1662 onwards, it did not regain its lustre: its numbers diminished inexorably and it was already weakened when it finally succumbed to the suppression of religious communities during the French Revolution, in 1790. The last monks were dispersed; the buildings were sold as national property and either destroyed or divided up and then redesigned.
In the 21st century, however, there are still significant remains of the abbey, although scattered in an urban landscape where their original unity is sometimes difficult to identify among more recent constructions. These remains include a few fragments of the former abbey church, among them Saint Paul's tower (the bell tower porch) and the Gothic Saint Symphorian's chapel (formerly north of the choir). The refectory has been largely preserved even though it has undergone a lot of remodelling, and a portion of the gallery of the cloister is still standing. On the periphery of the monastic enclosure, the dwellings of the abbot, the prior and the sacristan remain.
References:Ogrodzieniec Castle is a ruined medieval castle originally built in the 14th–15th century by the W³odkowie Sulimczycy family. Established in the early 12th century, during the reign of Boles³aw III Wrymouth, the first stronghold was razed by the Tatars in 1241. In the mid-14th century a new gothic castle was built here to accommodate the Sulimczycy family. Surrounded by three high rocks, the castle was well integrated into the area. The defensive walls were built to close the circuit formed by the rocks, and a narrow opening between two of the rocks served as an entrance.
In 1470 the castle and lands were bought by the wealthy Cracovian townsmen, Ibram and Piotr Salomon. Then, Ogrodzieniec became the property of Jan Feliks Rzeszowski, the rector of Przemy¶l and the canon of Cracow. The owners of the castle about that time were also Jan and Andrzej Rzeszowskis, and later Pilecki and Che³miñski families. In 1523 the castle was bought by Jan Boner.