Hambye Abbey Ruins

Hambye, France

Located in the Normandy countryside, near from the Mont Saint-Michel, the Abbey of Notre Dame of Hambye was founded around 1145 by William Painel, Lord of Hambye, and Algare, bishop of Coutances. The monastery was established by a group of Benedictine monks from Tiron (Perche region in south-east of Basse-Normandie). Fueled by an ideal of rigor and austerity close to that of Cistercians, Benedictine monks built a sober and elegant abbey, typical of early Gothic period. The construction took place in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The religious community reached its apogee in the 13th century and then, after a long decline over the following centuries, disappeared in the 1780s.

Like all French abbeys, it became national property at the beginning of the Revolution. Eventually, the abbey was sold in 1790. The owners transformed or destroyed buildings and scattered the furnishings. Having belonged to the abbey for three centuries (16th-18th centuries), the altarpiece was also sold. The convent buildings became farm buildings. The abbey church was used as a quarry from 1810, and was gradually dismantled.

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Address

Route de l'Abbaye 11-19, Hambye, France
See all sites in Hambye

Details

Founded: c. 1145
Category: Ruins in France
Historical period: Birth of Capetian dynasty (France)

More Information

www.musees-basse-normandie.fr
www.normandie-tourisme.fr
en.wikipedia.org
www.abbayes-normandes.com

Rating

4.5/5 (based on Google user reviews)

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User Reviews

mira Budzyn (2 years ago)
Fondée en 1145 et accueille des moines bénédictins. Devient chef d'ordre en 118. Connaît son apogée au XIII ème siècle avant son déclin. Les moines quittent le monastère avant la Révolution Française. Devenue bien national elle est mise en vente. L'église est transformée en carrière de pierre à partir de 1810, le cloître démentelé. Classée Monument Historique en 1902 et le reste en 1925. Depuis une cinquantaine d'années des travaux de restauration et de consolidation sont entrepris pour lui rendre dignité et beauté. Si vous passez dans la région n'hésitez pas à faire le détour. J'y suis allée avec mes petits enfants qui ont apprécié la visite. Petite boutique sur place ou vous trouverez également des savons et autres produits naturels
monique hermans (2 years ago)
Een ongelofelijke plaats om te zijn, gevoel niet te beschrijven, je kunt de ganse er de ganse dag rond dwalen de licht speling is onbeschrijfelijk mooi. De moeite om langs te gaan een omweg waard , puur genot.
Fabien B. (2 years ago)
C'est un lieu incroyable mêlant l'histoire d'une grande abbaye, et d'une femme qui a donné une grande partie de sa vie à sa rénovation. Cette abbaye offre des paysages uniques, simplement avec les parois de l'église partiellement détruit. A visiter absolument.
Glenn A. Jaspart (2 years ago)
Très belle abbaye. Il ne reste plus grand chose de l'abbatiale mais le lieu est malgré tout appréciable. On comprend bien la vie des moines de l'époque et se promener au sein des conventuels est un véritable plaisir.
ESTHER TRENCH (4 years ago)
We have been there a week ago. We are really thankful to Aurora! She guided us through this beautiful place, with much patience and in a very didactic way. Fantastic and unforgetable experience! Xavier and Esther, from Barcelona MAY2016
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Cochem Castle

The original Cochem Castle, perched prominently on a hill above the Moselle River, served to collect tolls from passing ships. Modern research dates its origins to around 1100. Before its destruction by the French in 1689, the castle had a long and fascinating history. It changed hands numerous times and, like most castles, also changed its form over the centuries.

In 1151 King Konrad III ended a dispute over who should inherit Cochem Castle by laying siege to it and taking possession of it himself. That same year it became an official Imperial Castle (Reichsburg) subject to imperial authority. In 1282 it was Habsburg King Rudolf’s turn, when he conquered the Reichsburg Cochem and took it over. But just 12 years later, in 1294, the newest owner, King Adolf of Nassau pawned the castle, the town of Cochem and the surrounding region in order to finance his coronation. Adolf’s successor, Albrecht I, was unable to redeem the pledge and was forced to grant the castle to the archbishop in nearby Trier and the Electorate of Trier, which then administered the Reichsburg continuously, except for a brief interruption when Trier’s Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg had to pawn the castle to a countess. But he got it back a year later.

The Electorate of Trier and its nobility became wealthy and powerful in large part due to the income from Cochem Castle and the rights to shipping tolls on the Moselle. Not until 1419 did the castle and its tolls come under the administration of civil bailiffs (Amtsmänner). While under the control of the bishops and electors in Trier from the 14th to the 16th century, the castle was expanded several times.

In 1688 the French invaded the Rhine and Moselle regions of the Palatinate, which included Cochem and its castle. French troops conquered the Reichsburg and then laid waste not only to the castle but also to Cochem and most of the other surrounding towns in a scorched-earth campaign. Between that time and the Congress of Vienna, the Palatinate and Cochem went back and forth between France and Prussia. In 1815 the western Palatinate and Cochem finally became part of Prussia once and for all.

Louis Jacques Ravené (1823-1879) did not live to see the completion of his renovated castle, but it was completed by his son Louis Auguste Ravené (1866-1944). Louis Auguste was only two years old when construction work at the old ruins above Cochem began in 1868, but most of the new castle took shape from 1874 to 1877, based on designs by Berlin architects. After the death of his father in 1879, Louis Auguste supervised the final stages of construction, mostly involving work on the castle’s interior. The castle was finally completed in 1890. Louis Auguste, like his father, a lover of art, filled the castle with an extensive art collection, most of which was lost during the Second World War.

In 1942, during the Nazi years, Ravené was forced to sell the family castle to the Prussian Ministry of Justice, which turned it into a law school run by the Nazi government. Following the end of the war, the castle became the property of the new state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 1978 the city of Cochem bought the castle for 664,000 marks.

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