Barbeau Abbey

Last updated
The abbey buildings in 1837, immediately prior to their demolition Abbaye de Barbeau.jpg
The abbey buildings in 1837, immediately prior to their demolition

Barbeau Abbey (French : Abbaye de Barbeau or Abbaye Notre-Dame de Barbeau; Latin: Barbelum, Sequanae portus, or Sacer portus) is a former Cistercian monastery in Fontaine-le-Port in the French department of Seine-et-Marne. It was located approximately 10 kilometers northeast of Fontainebleau and 8 kilometers southeast of Melun.

Contents

History

Barbeau Abbey was founded in 1147 by King Louis VII of France on the banks of the Seine, whence the original name Seine-Port, or Sequanae Portus, in Latin. It was transferred to its present site in 1156. The present name is supposedly derived from the French word for barbel, which is also depicted in the abbey's arms. According to the foundation legend a barbel was fished out of the Seine and found to contain a ring mounted with a precious stone that was lost by Saint Loup as he crossed the river, the sale of which raised the funds to build the monastery.

In 1180 Louis VII was buried in the abbey. His bones were transferred to St. Denis' Abbey in 1817.

The abbey prospered until the Hundred Years' War. In approximately 1420 the monks were driven out of the abbey and spent the next 40 years in Melun. After their return in 1460 the monastery was restored and enlarged. The abbey suffered further damage in the Wars of Religion. Under the commendatory abbot Cardinal Wilhelm Egon von Fürstenberg the church was again restored.

The abbey was suppressed in 1791 during the French Revolution and set on fire in 1793 by the Sansculottes. The state bought the remaining buildings back in 1810 for use as an orphanage, but sold them in 1837 to a private owner who demolished them and built a country house on the site. A riding school now occupies the former site.

Buildings

There are few remains of the abbey apart from an ice-cellar. The church of Fontaine-le-Port has preserved some of the 16th-century wooden sculptures from the abbey church, and a chapel in the same village is also said once to have been the abbey's. The church of Héricy owns an 18th-century altar from the monastery.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbey of the Paraclete</span> 12th century French monastery

The Abbey of the Paraclete was a Benedictine monastery founded by Peter Abelard in Ferreux-Quincey, France, after he left the Abbey of St. Denis about 1121. Paraclete comes from the Greek word meaning "one who consoles" and is found in the Gospel of John (16:7) as a name for the Holy Spirit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tironensian Order</span> Medieval monastic order

The Tironensian Order or the Order of Tiron was a medieval monastic order named after the location of the mother abbey in the woods of Thiron-Gardais in Perche, some 35 miles west of Chartres in France). They were popularly called "Grey Monks" because of their grey robes, which their spiritual cousins, the monks of Savigny, also wore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrondissement of Melun</span> Arrondissement in Île-de-France, France

The arrondissement of Melun is an arrondissement of France in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region. It has 59 communes. Its population is 283,360 (2019), and its area is 617.1 km2 (238.3 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrondissement of Provins</span> Arrondissement in Île-de-France, France

The arrondissement of Provins is an arrondissement of France in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region. It has 176 communes. Its population is 184,763 (2019), and its area is 2,344.6 km2 (905.3 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dammarie-lès-Lys</span> Commune in Île-de-France, France

Dammarie-lès-Lys is a commune in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region 43.3 km (26.9 mi) from the center of Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbey of St Victor, Marseille</span>

The Abbey of Saint-Victor is a former abbey that was founded during the late Roman period in Marseille in the south of France, named after the local soldier saint and martyr, Victor of Marseilles.

Faremoutiers Abbey was an important Merovingian Benedictine nunnery in the present Seine-et-Marne department of France. It formed an important link between the Merovingian Frankish Empire and the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Kent and East Anglia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontaine-le-Port</span> Commune in Île-de-France, France

Fontaine-le-Port is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey</span> Former Cistercian monastery in northern France

Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in northern France (Île-de-France), situated in Cernay-la-Ville, in the Diocese of Versailles, Yvelines. The abbey was abandoned during the French Revolution and fell into partial ruin. Most of the buildings, except for the church, were restored in the late 19th century by Charlotte de Rothschild, and the property is now a hotel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbey of Saint Genevieve</span> Monastery in Paris suppressed at the time of the French Revolution

The Abbey of Saint Genevieve was a monastery in Paris. Reportedly built by Clovis, King of the Franks in 502, it became a centre of religious scholarship in the Middle Ages. It was suppressed at the time of the French Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preuilly Abbey</span>

Preuilly Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in Égligny in the Seine-et-Marne department, France. It was located about 21 kilometres south-west of Provins and 15 kilometres east of Montereau-Fault-Yonne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonneval Abbey (Eure-et-Loir)</span>

Bonneval Abbey, also known as St. Florentinus' Abbey, is a former Benedictine monastery in Bonneval, Eure-et-Loir, in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif</span>

The Abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif was a Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Sens, France, in the Archdiocese of Sens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bèze Abbey</span>

The Bèze Abbey, was a monastery founded in 629 AD in Burgundy, France. It was destroyed several times during the next three centuries by Frankish warlords, Saracens, Normans and Hungarians. At the end of the 10th century the abbey was re-founded and entered a golden age for the next two centuries. By the 13th century the spiritual life of the abbey had declined and the monks were mainly concerned with temporal matters. The abbey lost most of its monks during the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death of the 14th century. In 1429 it was fortified with stone walls, a moat and towers, two of which have survived. The abbey was again devastated by feuds in 1513, by the French Wars of Religion (1562–98) and by the Thirty Years' War (1618–48).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbey of Saint-Seine</span> Former Benedictine monastery in Saint-Seine-lAbbaye, Côte-dOr, Burgundy, France

The Abbey of Saint-Seine is a former Benedictine monastery located in Saint-Seine-l'Abbaye, Côte-d'Or, Burgundy, France. During the Middle Ages it was a wealthy and powerful institution. It was suppressed at the French Revolution.

Abbecourt Abbey is a former Premonstratensian monastery in Orgeval, Yvelines, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontenelles Abbey</span>

Fontenelles Abbey or Les Fontenelles Abbey was an Augustinian monastery in the former commune of Saint-André-d'Ornay, in the Vendée, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les Écharlis Abbey</span> Cistercian monastery in Yonne, France

Les Écharlis Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Villefranche, Yonne, France. It was founded in the 12th century by a secular priest with two companions who wanted to live a monastic life. Soon afterward, the monastery joined the Cistercian order as a dependency of Fontenay Abbey.

References

48°27′43″N02°46′28″E / 48.46194°N 2.77444°E / 48.46194; 2.77444