VISITS – HISTORY
The Abbey of Reigny
Visit Reigny Abbey
Private, inhabited historic monument open to visitors
> All year round by appointment: Private tour package 48€, up to 6 people.
> July-August: 10am-12pm, 2pm-6pm. Closed: Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Self-guided tour Adults: €5
AAR members and under-12s: free.
Guided tour Adults: €9 under-18s: €3.
Family package (2 adults, 2 children): €20.
Groups of 15 or more: €6/person.
English-speaking guide. Tours in LPC on request.
Accessible for people with reduced mobility.
No visits during concerts, events and receptions. Please consult our website for dates and times.
History of Reigny Abbey
Theabbey of Reigny, located in the town of Vermenton, in Burgundy, was founded in 1128 by the abbot Etienne de Toucy, a monk of Clairvaux and under the authority of Saint Bernard. Located in an exceptional setting on the banks of the Cure, land of the Counts of Auxerre and Nevers, the abbey, placed under the protection of Pope Eugene III in 1147, was very powerful and prosperous in the Middle Ages, welcoming up to 300 monks.
In 1370 the king of France, Charles V, placed the abbey under his protection and a century later in 1493 Charles VIII made it a Royal Foundation. Unfortunately, the Hundred Years’ War, the Huguenots and the French Revolution took their toll on this beautiful edifice, which has nonetheless retained some very interesting vestiges of its prestigious past:
the exceptional 14th-century Cistercian refectory (only three examples remain in France), with its elegant double-span nave that has retained its original polychrome decoration, the monks’ hall and dormitory, with its succession of lounges and dining room, refurbished by the monks in the 18th century and magnificently furnished, the 18th-century portal, an astonishing 17th-century dovecote with 3,500 terracotta bolts and its two revolving ladders.
The foundations of the demolished buildings can still be seen thanks to the excavations that have uncovered the foundations of the second abbey church built under the direction of the architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux in 1763, thus giving the abbey its original size.
A first abbey church, of which only a few vestiges remain, was built from 1134.
Finally, the entire Cistercian hydraulic network has been preserved with, uniquely, the channelling of a spring that brings water into the park from downstream to upstream and in the opposite direction to the Cure.
Please contact us about visiting the abbey.
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The abbey in pictures
Access road to the Abbey of Reigny
Follow the road to the gate
