Ferrières Abbey

Ferrières Abbey was probably founded in about 630 by Columbanus, an Irish monk. It reached a height of prosperity in the time of Loup of Ferrières (c. 850), when the abbey became quite an active literary centre, but the library was destroyed at the same time as the monastery, and only rare fragments survive.

The Carolingian kings Louis III and his brother Carloman held their joint coronation at the abbey in 879, and were later buried there. It was restored in the 9th century by Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald.

Among the last names in the imperfect list of the abbots of Ferrières is that of Louis de Blanchefort, who in the 15th century almost entirely restored the abbey after it was burnt down by the English in the Hundred Years' War. He was buried in its choir.

In 1568, the abbey was besieged by the troops of Louis de Condé, Protestant friend of the Coligny family, pillaged and profaned and, although no monks were killed, the reliquaires and treasures of the abbey were dispersed, the tombs there of Louis III, Carloman II and Louis de Blanchefort heavily damaged and the monks' stalls removed. After suffering this and other severe damage during the Wars of Religion, Ferrières was rebuilt in the 17th century by the prior Guillaume Morin, but then disappeared with all the ancient abbeys at the time of the French Revolution, and its treasures and library were ruined and scattered.

Buildings

Today only some ruins of the ancient monastic buildings are to be seen. The abbey church is formed of a 12th-century nave and 13th-century transepts and choir.

The choir is covered with a six-part arch (a 13th-century type particular to Champagne and Burgundy). Its lateral walls present traces of an 11th-century phase of construction. In the choir is the tomb of Louis de Blanchefort.

The tympanum of the earlier door of the central nave, today in the open air, was decorated with a scene of Christ in majesty, with (some believe) Christ as a portrait of Clovis I. In the earlier door of the secondary nave was a capital representing a fight between Pepin the Short and a lion.

The glass-windows of the apse date back to the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, ordered by Louis of Blancafort or his successor Pierre de Martigny (1518-1527).

Besides the monastic church (12th and 13th centuries), the Notre-Dame de Bethléem chapel (to the west of the monastic church), in which is a retable of 1650 by Gilles Guérin, and parts of the convent were preserved, all largely dating to Louis de Blanchefort's 15th century rebuild.

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

Rue des Eglises 15, Ferrières-en-Gâtinais, France

Details

Founded: 12th century
Category: Religious sites in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)