Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Our Lady of Oigny Abbey, founded in 1106 in Oigny (Côte d'Or), has its origins in a hermitage occupied since the 11th century by cenobites, including Christophorus. This isolated place, suitable for monastic life, briefly welcomes Alberic de Cîteaux and Étienne Harding, future founders of the Cistercian order, before their departure for Cîteaux in 1098. The abbey was officially established in 1106 thanks to donations from local lords, Gaudin de Duesme and Milon de Frôlois, and placed under the name of the Virgin, Saint Laurent and Saint Nicholas. Linked to the order of the regular canons of St Augustine, it is distinguished in Burgundy by this rare affiliation.

In the 12th century, the Abbey of Oigny played a major spiritual role, indirectly influencing the creation of pre-demonstrated order. His Coutumier serves as a model to organize monastic life, and his exchanges with Cîteaux bear witness to an intellectual effervescence. The territorial donations, including those of Duke Hugues II of Burgundy, allow its material expansion: construction of the convent building (XIIIth century), visit of Saint Louis in 1269, and possession of a private hotel in Dijon. The abbey, rich at the end of the Ancien Régime, however, saw its decline beginning with the beginning and internal conflicts in the 16th century.

The 17th and 18th centuries radically transformed the abbey. Commodore abbots, often from the nobility (like the Bouthillier de Chavigny family), modernise the premises: construction of the abbey house (1680), layout of terraced gardens inspired by Italy, and creation of a monumental court of honor. Despite tensions, such as the Bouettin affair linked to Jansenism, the abbey retains its prestige until the Revolution. In 1790, his property was seized and sold to the Dumaine and Benoist families, who turned them into a farm and a bourgeois residence, thus preserving a large part of the buildings.

In the 19th century, the abbey, which became "Château d'Oigny", suffered a fire in 1840 which destroyed the abbey. The owners, the Terrillon family, demolished the ruins of the church to enlarge a mill and built a neo-Gothic chapel (1842) for the parish. The site, still private, is partially classified as Historic Monument in 1990. Today, some of the buildings (abbatial logis, gardens, outbuildings) are open to the public, while the Hermitage Notre-Dame du Val de Seine, a medieval pilgrimage site, belongs to the Diocese of Dijon.

The architecture of the abbey reflects its metamorphoses: the 13th century convent building, with its "shipboat hull" structure, coexisted with the classic 17th century abbey house and gardens rediscovered in 2018. Although the church and cloister have disappeared, the remains (portal, floors, terraces) and departmental archives (conserving medieval charters) testify to its historical importance. The abbey thus illustrates the evolution of the Burgundy monasteries, from medieval rigorism to the Embourgeoisement des Lumières.

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