Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The abbey of Valbonne, also called Vallbona, is a former Cistercian monastery located in a valley of the Alber massif, in the commune of Argelès-sur-Mer (Pyrénées-Orientales). Founded in the 13th century by the monks of Sainte-Marie Abbey in Fontfroide, it was consecrated in 1242 and housed a community of about a dozen religious. Its geographical isolation and the successive departures of the monks – especially in the 15th century for Perpignan – led to its definitive abandonment in 1734. The current remains, integrated into the Mas de Valbonne, bear witness to its monastic past.

The site originally belonged, as early as the 9th century, to the Abbey of Saint-Cyr de Colera, located on the Spanish slope of the Albères. In the 13th century, Fontfroide acquired the valley and established Valbonne there, benefiting in 1293 from a grazing right granted by Jacques II de Mallorca. After periods of abandonment and return of the monks in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the community, reduced and isolated, finally left the place in 1734. The abandoned abbey becomes a private farm.

Architecturally, the Valbonne Mas preserves traces of the original fortified enclosure, including a cylindrical tower, as well as the remains of the abbey church. The latter, of late Romanesque and primitive Gothic style (XII century), has a vaulted nave in warheads of 16 meters, while the semicircular abside and transept have disappeared. An adjacent patio suggests the location of the old cloister, now almost erased. The few surviving marble sculptures illustrate the sobriety characteristic of Cistercian art.

Among the remarkable elements are a bentier, a baptismal vessel and fragments of the cloister. These remains, though partial, offer a glimpse of medieval monastic life in the Alber. The abbey, though modest in size, reflects the influence of Fontfroide and the challenges posed by geographical isolation to the religious communities of the region.

External links