Cherlieu Abbey (french: Abbaye de Cherlieu; la, Carus locus) is a former Cistercian

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

in the commune of

Montigny-lès-Cherlieu Montigny-lès-Cherlieu () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. The Cistercian Cherlieu Abbey was sited here. See also *Communes of the Haute-Saône department The following ...

Haute-Saône Haute-Saône (; Arpitan: ''Hiôta-Sona''; English: Upper Saône) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of northeastern France. Named after the river Saône, it had a population of 235,313 in 2019.France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, about 37 kilometres west-north-west of

Vesoul Vesoul () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté located in eastern France. It is the most populated municipality of the department with inhabitants in 2014. The same year, the Communauté d'agglo ...

and about 6 kilometres south-east of Vitrey-sur-Mance in the Forest of Cherlieu (''Forêt de Cherlieu'').

History

The abbey was founded in 1131 by a community of monks from Clairvaux. With the support of

Renaud III, Count of Burgundy Reginald III (french: Renaud; c. 1087 – 1148), son of Stephen I and Beatrice of Lorraine, was the count of Burgundy between 1127 and 1148. Previously, he had been the count of Mâcon since his father's death in 1102, with his brother, Will ...

, it soon flourished, the monks numbering several hundred. Cherlieu was the mother house of two abbeys in what is now Switzerland - Hauterive (1132) and Haut-Crêt (1143) - as well as others in France: Acey (1136), Le Gard (1137) and Beaulieu-en-Bassigny (1166). Cherlieu owned several granges, wine cellars, mills and ovens. Adelaide, Countess of Burgundy, was buried here in 1279. In the 15th century the abbey was attacked by the Écorcheurs; in 1569 it was set on fire by

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

s under Wolfgang von Zweibrücken. It was rebuilt under Abbot Ferdinand de Rye at the beginning of the 16th century. In 1637 it was occupied by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

troops. In 1773 the abbot's house was rebuilt. It was suppressed in 1790 during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

and the premises were used as a source of building materials.

Buildings

Of the buildings, the kitchen and refectory of the 17th and 18th century survive, although without their roofs, as do some ruins of the

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

from the 15th century. Of the 105-metre-long church, built in transitional style in the 13th century, all that remains is an imposing fragment of the wall of the northern

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

. The floor of the church is hidden under a layer of debris.

Sources

External links

Certosa di Firenze website: photos

{{Coord, 47, 46, 52, N, 5, 49, 32, E, type:landmark_region:FR, display=title Cistercian monasteries in France Buildings and structures in Haute-Saône Christian monasteries established in the 12th century 1131 establishments in Europe 1130s establishments in France Burial sites of the House of Andechs