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Origin and history

The abbey of la Boissière was founded in 1131 in Anjou, on the current territory of Dénezé-sous-le-Lude, in the Baugeois region. Originally dependent on Savigny Abbey, she joined the Cistercian order in 1147 under the impulse of Cîteaux. The choir of its church, dating from the 12th century, presents a semicircular apse decorated with five windows, while its 17th century altar is disused after the Revolution. The current ruins include rectangular chapels, a transept and Gothic openings.

In 1241, Jean d'Alluye, returning from the fourth crusade, offered the abbey a fragment of the True Cross, acquired in Crete. This relic, preserved in a chapel dedicated to the entrance of the monastery, attracts pilgrims until the Revolution. In 1357, fearing the looting of the Tard-Venus during the Hundred Years War, the monks entrusted the relic to the Jacobins of Angers. It was then deposited in the castle of Angers by Louis I, then returned to the abbey in 1399 by Louis II, before being integrated into the treasure of the chapel rebuilt by Yolande d'Aragon.

The abbey was destroyed in 1428 by the English, losing its charter and part of its buildings. After the war, the remaining fourteen religious received papal indulgences (1456-1476) to finance reparations. The relic of the True Cross, reported in 1456, finally left the abbey in 1790 for Baugé, where it was still preserved. The convent buildings, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, are partially protected as Historic Monuments (classifications in 1923, 1928 and 1954).

The architecture of the abbey combines medieval elements (angelian vault with liernes and thirdons in the chapel of the True Cross) and reconstructions of the 17th and 18th centuries. The galleries of the cloister, destroyed in 1795, and the archives, scattered between the National Library and the Departmental Archives of Maine-et-Loire, bear witness to its rich past. Today, classified remains include the apse of the abbey church and the facades of the convent buildings.

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