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Origin and history

The abbey of Bonlieu was founded in 1199 by Guillemette (or Ermengarde), wife of the Count of Forez Guigues II, as a female Cistercian priory dependent on the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Bellecombe. Set up in the parish of Sainte-Agathe-la-Bouteresse, this priory became an abbey in 1259, thanks to the support of the Counts of Forez and the family of Urfé. The monastic buildings, often destroyed by fire (XIVth century, 1682, 1711), were rebuilt several times, while the abbatial church, rebuilt in the 14th century, presented an atypical plan with a heptagonal choir and apsidioles in bias.

In the Middle Ages, the abbey benefited from the donations of both the Comtals and the seigneurials, notably from the Arnulph of Urfé, who participated in the renovation of the church in 1324. The governor of the Forez built a family mausoleum there in 1543. The conflicts of suzerainety between the nuns and the local lords marked its history. The abbey, sold as a national property in 1790, saw its church burn in the 19th century, leaving only the parish church of Sainte-Agathe, now extinct.

The architecture of the abbey blended local bricks and peas, with elements in stoneware, limestone and granite. The church, of the "church-halle" type (nef and collaterals of the same height), was vaulted with dogives and had an original bedside framed with deaxed absidioles. Two classified objects remain: a bell of the 17th century and two 16th century funeral steles commissioned by Claude d-Urfé. Ranked a historic monument in 1952 and then in 2023, the Abbey illustrates the Cistercian history in Forez.

The abbey buildings, organized around a mill canal visible on the cadastre of 1826, were definitively destroyed after 1790. The church, perhaps transformed into a barn before the Revolution, was divided horizontally by a brick vault. Today, only architectural remains (walls, foothills, frames) and classified elements bear witness to this heritage. The excavations and studies, such as those of Antoine Bonin (1940) or Philippe Peyron (1999), shed light on his role in the religious and seigneurial history of the Forez.

The foundation of Bonlieu is part of the Cistercian dynamic of the 12th century in Forez, alongside the abbeys of Bénisson-Dieu and Valbenoîte. Originally from a noble female community, the abbey reflected local power networks between Counts, families of Urfé and clergy. Its progressive destruction, from fires to the Revolution, symbolizes the political and religious upheavals that affected monastic establishments in France.

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