Details
Founded: 1137Category: Religious sites in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)
Interesting Sites Nearby
User Reviews
Le Breuil-Benoît Abbey was founded in 1137 by Foulques, lord of Marcilly, and his son Guillaume. It was settled by monks from Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey, as a member of the congregation of Savigny Abbey. The abbey was soon able to settle a foundation of its own, that of La Trappe Abbey in 1140. In 1147 the Savigniac houses became part of the Cistercian movement, among them Breuil-Benoît, which was made a daughter house of the filiation of Clairvaux.
In 1421 the troops of Henry V of England occupied the abbey, set the church on fire, plundered the conventual buildings and killed the monks.
By 1762 the monastery, which had meanwhile fallen into the hands of commendatory abbots, comprised only two monks. It was dissolved in 1790 during the French Revolution and partly demolished. it has been classed as a monument historique since 1993.
In the grounds, converted into a park, the church still stands, the only extant Cistercian church in Normandy. Restoration works were carried out in 1855, and further works have been in progress since 1995. Built between 1190 and 1224, the Gothic church contains a vaulted nave and two aisles of six spans. The west front has two lancet windows, two oculi and a double door. The western walls of the transept remain, as do the five radiating chapels that form the semi-circular chevet behind the choir. The abbot's house, converted into a gentleman's residence in the 1550s, is also still extant, but most of the other buildings have disappeared.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.