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Origin and history

Notre-Dame de Turpenay Abbey was founded in 1127 by Foulques le Jeune, Count of Anjou and Touraine, in the present territory of Saint-Benoît-la-Forêt. Originally organized around a wooden church, it was equipped with a stone building as early as 1134 under the impulse ofHugues, Archbishop of Tours. This Benedictine monastery received a donation from Alienor d'Aquitaine in 1199, upon the death of his son Richard Coeur de Lion, and became the burial place of Henri I Clément, Marshal of France, in 1214.

Partially rebuilt in the 14th century, the abbey was cited by François Rabelais and adopted the reform of Saint-Maur in 1647. At the Revolution, it had only two monks and was abolished. The remaining buildings, including the abbey house and the infirmary, were listed as historical monuments in 1927. The site, now partly in ruins, bears witness to its medieval past and its role in the religious history of the Touraine.

The current remains include an abbey house to the east, a south pavilion with a cylindrical turret, and a 15th century house body. The 12th century church, destroyed, once bounded the cloister with the capitular hall and dormitory. The abbey, linked to literary figures like Rabelais and Balzac, retains a heritage value marked by its architecture and its turbulent history.

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