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Origin and history

The abbey of the Bourdillière, located in Genillé in Indre-et-Loire, was founded in 1622 by Louis de Menou as a Cistercian priory, erected as a royal abbey in 1688. The first nuns from his family lived there until its closure in 1778, after a gradual decline in the 18th century. The buildings, sold as national property in 1791, were bought by a descendant of the Menou and then converted into private dwellings.

The original estate, composed of two fiefs gathered in 1662, included a seigneurial house of the fifteenth century, flanked by towers and surrounded by moat today filled. In the 17th century, a 50-metre convent building was added to house the nuns, while the seigneurial chapel served as the abbey church. The pulpit of the abbesses, classified as a historical monument in 1992, was transferred to the church of Genillé after the dissolution of the abbey.

The abbey had several outbuildings, including estates acquired between 1682 and 1736, such as the Coudray or the Puchère in Genillé. Its management was marked by financial difficulties in the 18th century, leading to its abolition in 1770 and its sale as a national good. The facades and roofs of the seigneurial house were listed as historical monuments in 1951.

The transmission of the load of abbess was carried out within the family of Menou, with figures like Claude de Menou, first Prioress, or Catherine II, abbess for more than twenty years. A plaque in the church of Genillé commemorates the foundation of the abbey, while the current buildings, partially redesigned, testify to its monastic and seigneurial past.

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