Abbaye des Augustins de Saint-Savinien en Charente-Maritime

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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Augustine Abbey of Saint-Savinien, founded in the 13th century in Saintonge, was an influential monastery of the order of Augustines. Some chronicles evoke up to a hundred monks at its peak, although this figure remains uncertain. Its history was marked by destruction, especially in 1568, when the Huguenots devastated it, reducing the community to thirty monks. According to tradition, eight of them were thrown into a well during the violence.

The monastery, partially rebuilt after these events, was sold as a national property in 1791 during the French Revolution. The buildings, transformed into distilleries and warehouses, became the hall for the feasts of Saint-Savinien in 1937, a function that they retain today. The only significant vestige of the original monastic complex, the abbey church, whose oldest parts date back to the 13th century, was included in the inventory of historical monuments in 1925.

The building, rebuilt in the 16th and 17th centuries, features a unique nave of three spans and a side chapel decorated with frescoes. Among the notable elements are the burial of the Princess of Condé, daughter of the Count of Taillebourg, and a southern Renaissance façade. The western facade, sober, contrasts with this ornamentation. The church remains accessible to the public during Heritage Days.

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