Sénanque Abbey (

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

: ''abadiá de Senhanca'', French: ''Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque'') is a Cistercian

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 con ...

near the village of

Gordes Gordes (; oc, Gòrda) is a commune in the Vaucluse département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The residents are known as ''Gordiens.'' The nearest big city is Avignon; smaller cities nearby include Cavaill ...

in the ''département'' of the

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

, France.

First foundation

It was founded in 1148 under the patronage of Alfant, bishop of Cavaillon, and Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona, Count of Provence, by Cistercian monks who came from Mazan Abbey in the Ardèche. Temporary huts housed the first community of impoverished monks. By 1152 the community already had so many members that Sénanque was able to found Chambons Abbey, in the diocese of Viviers. The young community found patrons in the lord, seigneurs of Simiane-la-Rotonde, Simiane, whose support enabled them to build the abbey church, consecrated in 1178. Other structures at Sénanque followed, laid out according to the rule of Cîteaux Abbey, mother house of the Cistercians. Among its existing structures, famed examples of Romanesque architecture, are the abbey church, cloister, dormitory, chapter house and the small ''calefactory'', the one heated space in the austere surroundings, so that the monks could write, for this was their scriptorium. A refectory was added in the 17th century, when some minimal rebuilding of existing walls was undertaken, but the abbey is a remarkably untouched survival, of rare beauty and severity: the Capital (architecture), capitals of the paired columns in the cloister arcade (architecture), arcades are reduced to the simplest leaf forms, not to offer sensual distraction. The abbey church is in the form of a tau cross with an apse projecting beyond the abbey's outer walls. Somewhat unusually, its Cathedral diagram#Liturgical east end, liturgical east end faces north, as the narrow and secluded valley offered no space for the conventional arrangement. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Sénanque reached its apogee, operating four mills, seven monastic grange, granges and possessing large estates in

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

. In 1509, when the first abbot ''Commendam, in commendam'' was named, a sure sign of the decline of vocation, the community at Sénanque had shrunk to about a dozen. During the French Wars of Religion, Wars of Religion the quarters for the lay brothers were destroyed and the abbey was ransacked by Huguenots. At the French Revolution the abbey's lands were nationalized, the one remaining monk was expelled and Sénanque itself was sold to a private individual.

Second foundation

The site was repurchased in 1854 for a new community of Cistercian monks of the Immaculate Conception, under a rule less stringent than that of the Trappists. The community was expelled in 1903 and departed to the Order's headquarters, Lérins Abbey on the island of St. Honorat, near Cannes. A small community returned in 1988 as a priory of Lérins. The monks who live at Sénanque grow lavender (visible in front of the abbey, ''illustration, right'') and tend honey bees for their livelihood. It is possible for individuals to arrange to stay at the abbey for spiritual retreat. Two other early Cistercian abbeys in Provence are Silvacane Abbey and Le Thoronet Abbey; with Sénanque, they are sometimes referred to as the "Three Sisters of Provence" (''"les trois soeurs provençales"'').

Gallery

References

* Dimier, Père Anselme, 1982: ''L'art cistercien''. Editions Zodiaque: La Pierre-qui-Vire. * Fleischhauer, Carsten, 2003: ''Die Baukunst der Zisterzienser in der Provence: Sénanque - Le Thoronet - Silvacane.''. Abteilung Architekturgeschichte des Kunsthistorischen Instituts der Universität zu Köln. Cologne University. * Morin-Sauvade, Hélène & Fleischhauer, Carsten, 2002: ''Sénanque''. Editions Zodiaque: Paris.

External links

Sénanque Abbey Web site

Gallery of images and groundplan
*
Photos of Senanque Abbey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Senanque Abbey Buildings and structures completed in 1178 12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France 1148 establishments in Europe 1140s establishments in France Religious organizations established in the 1140s Cistercian monasteries in France Romanesque architecture in Provence Buildings and structures in Vaucluse Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Churches in Vaucluse