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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Abbey of Champagne is a former Cistercian abbey founded in 1188 by Foulques Riboul, lord of Assé, with the help of monks from Savigny Abbey. The site, isolated and watered by two streams, offered ideal conditions for a Bernardine community, with ponds, a mill and a source for drinking water. The abbey adopts the coat of arms of its founder and develops rapidly under the protection of the local lords, accumulating property in about fifty parishes in Maine at the end of the thirteenth century.

In the 13th century, the abbey church, damaged by the troops of Philip Augustus, was rebuilt and consecrated in 1261 by the Bishop of Mans, Geoffroy Freslon. The abbey also became a necropolis for benefactory families, such as the Beaumanoir, including Guy de Lavardin-Beaumanoir and his wife Jeanne d'Estouteville were buried there. This period marks the culmination of its prosperity, supported by gifts and seigneurial protections.

As early as the 14th century, the abbey began to decline, with an area that was gradually shrinking. In the 16th century, it passed under the regime of commende, where the abbots, often nobles appointed by the king, were no longer religious. Among them are Cardinal Retz and members of the Gondi family. In the 17th century, despite an attempt to reform with the adoption of Trappist "close observance", the decline continued, and conversants disappeared.

At the Revolution, the abbey, reduced to eight monks and an abbot, was sold as a national property in 1791. All its buildings are destroyed, except for the west and south wing, which are transformed into a farm. These vestiges include the pantry, kitchens and converse room. In 1899, the Luzu family acquired the premises and started a restaurant financed by a farm-inn.

The western wing, the entrance gate and the 18th century pavilions were listed as historical monuments in 1932. Today, the abbey, still owned by the Luzu family, bears witness to its medieval history and its post-revolutionary transformations, mixing religious heritage and modern agricultural use.

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