Port-Royal Abbey was an

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conc ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

that was a stronghold of

Jansenism Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by t ...

. It was first built in 1626 to relieve pressure of numbers on the mother house at

Port-Royal-des-Champs Port-Royal-des-Champs was an abbey of Cistercian nuns in Magny-les-Hameaux, in the Vallée de Chevreuse southwest of Paris that launched a number of culturally important institutions. History The abbey was established in 1204, but became ...

History

Famous people who stayed at the Port-Royal Abbey include

Marie de Rohan Marie Aimée de Rohan (December 1600 – 12 August 1679) was a French courtier and political activist, famed for being the center of many of the intrigues of the first half of the 17th century in France. In various sources, she is often know ...

, intriguer during the

Fronde The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law cour ...

; Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, future mistress of a duke of Savoy; Marie Angélique de Fontanges, mistress of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

, died here giving birth to his child who also died. It was closed down in 1790, at the beginning of 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 November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

and from 1793 used as a prison under the name Prison de Port-libre or Prison de la Bourbe. Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (lawyer for

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...

during his trial) and Madame de Tourzel, former governess of the " children of France", were held here. MA Charpentier I

Today its main

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 ...

(''illustration'') forms part of the modern Hôpital Cochin.

Notable patrons

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest m ...

Jacqueline Pascal Jacqueline Pascal (4 October 1625 – 4 October 1661), sister of Blaise Pascal, was born at Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France. Like her brother she was a prodigy, composing verses when only eight years old, and a five-act comedy at eleven. In ...

, sister of Blaise Pascal *Madame du ValoisMary Anne Galton Schimmelpenninck, ''Select Memoirs of Port Royal''. *

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Marc-Antoine Charpentier (; 1643 – 24 February 1704) was a French Baroque composer during the reign of Louis XIV. One of his most famous works is the main theme from the prelude of his ''Te Deum'', ''Marche en rondeau''. This theme is still us ...

Footnotes

{{Coord, 48, 50, 19, N, 2, 20, 18, E, type:landmark_region:FR, display=title 1626 establishments in France Buildings and structures in Paris Cistercian nunneries in France Defunct prisons in Paris Roman Catholic churches in the 14th arrondissement of Paris Christian monasteries in Paris