Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Abbey of Fontaine-Guérard, located in Radepont, Eure, is a female Cistercian abbey founded around 1135 by Amaury I of Meulan as a priory. Around 1190, thanks to a donation from Robert III of Beaumont, Count of Leicester, the establishment was reborn. Before 1207 the nuns joined the order of Cîteaux, and the church was consecrated in 1218. All the regular buildings were completed in 1253 when the priory became an abbey under Saint Louis.

The Abbey is an example of Anglo-Norman Gothic architecture, with a capitular hall considered one of the most beautiful of its style. Conventual buildings, little modified after the Middle Ages, offer an intact testimony of medieval monastic life. Among the notable abbesses, Élisabeth de Maromme (1496-1540) and Élisabeth Le Cordier de Bigards (1619-1661) led the abbey for several decades and supervised important works.

During the Revolution, the abbey was sold as a national property. The last abbess, Marie Madeleine-Eléonore du Bosc de Radepont, left the monastery in 1790. The premises became a cotton mill in the 19th century, exploiting the stones of the abbey to build industrial buildings. In 1851, there were only two buildings and the church. In the 20th century, the Salvation Army acquired the estate and undertook restorations, before ceding it in 2013 to a private owner.

The current remains include the Saint-Michel Chapel, the vaulted cellar of the 12th century, the capitular hall with quadripartite vaults, and the dormitory of nuns. The working room, or working room, preserves traces of original medieval paintings. The abbey church, although partially in ruins, shows a flat bedside typical of the Cistercians and houses a 13th century gissant attributed to Marie de Ferriere, victim of a murder commissioned by her husband.

The abbey derives its name from a source, the " Fontaine-qui-gurit", essential to the Cistercian foundation. The buildings, organized around a cloister that has disappeared today, illustrate the traditional plan of the female abbeys, with spaces dedicated to nuns and converse sisters. The capitular hall, the parlor and the sacristy reflect the strict observance of the Cistercian rule, including the silence and separation of spaces.

Ranked a historic monument in 1937, the Abbey is now a major tourist site of Norman Vexin. It hosted cultural events, such as the 2017 international painting competition, and remains an exceptional testimony of medieval monastic architecture, preserved through successive restorations since the 20th century.

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