Valmagne Abbey

43°29′12.97″N 3°33′44.19″E / 43.4869361°N 3.5622750°E / 43.4869361; 3.5622750

The nave with large wine barrels in the side aisles

Valmagne Abbey (French: Abbaye de Valmagne) is a former Benedictine monastery located near Villeveyrac, Hérault, in south-central France. It is a designated historic monument (monument historique).[1]

Valmagne Abbey was founded as a Benedictine abbey in 1138 but only twenty years later was attached to the Cistercian Order by decree of Pope Hadrian IV, where it remained until the French Revolution when monasteries in France were confiscated by the state and either sold or destroyed.[2] Valmagne escaped demolition and was sold intact to a Monsieur Granier-Joyeuse in 1791 who converted the abbey church into a wine cave for the maturing of wine in large barrels,[3] a function it continues to serve today.

  1. ^ Base Mérimée: Ancienne abbaye de Sainte-Marie de Valmagne, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
  2. ^ de Gaudart d'Allaines, Diane (2006). Valmagne Abbey. Moisenay, France: Editions Gaud. ISBN 2-84080-155-8.
  3. ^ "History of Abbaye de Valmagne". Abbaye de Valmagne. Retrieved 2008-11-15.