Abbey of Fontenay
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How it came to be
Fontenay is a Cistercian abbey founded early in the 12th century by Bernard of Clairvaux in a marshy valley in Burgundy. Its church was built in 1139-1147 under Abbot Guillaume and consecrated by Pope Eugene III, a Cistercian and a former disciple of Bernard.
The Latin-cross church is 66 metres long and has no tower over the crossing. The ironworks building of the late 12th century is one of the oldest industrial buildings in France. By about 1200 the complex was complete and could house up to 300 monks.
The monks left during the French Revolution, the abbey was sold as national property, and from 1791 it was a paper mill run by the Montgolfier brothers. In 1906 the Lyon banker Édouard Aynard bought it and began restoring it, and his family still owns it. It was inscribed in 1981.
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