Cormery Abbey

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:

• Wikipedia

Address

Rue Alexis Meunier 14, Cormery, France

Details

Founded: 791 AD
Category: Religious sites in France
Historical period: Frankish kingdoms (France)