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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Abbey of Notre-Dame de Jouarre, founded around 630/635 by Adon on an estate near Ussy-sur-Marne, is first a double monastery (men and women) inspired by Saint Colomban de Luxeuil. Telchide, niece of the founding family, became its first abbess, followed by Aguilberte and Balde. Agilbert, brother of Telchide and future bishop of Paris, succeeded Adon. This site becomes a major pilgrimage centre between the 9th and 10th centuries, linked to the radiation of Aachen, before a fortified village developed there in the 11th–12th centuries, giving birth to the present city.

In the 16th century, the abbess Charlotte of Bourbon-Vendôme, converted to Protestantism, fled the abbey during the massacre of Saint Bartholomew (1572) to Germany. The 17th and 18th centuries saw major architectural transformations: Jeanne de Bourbon erected a classical church (destroyed during the Revolution), while Jeanne de Lorraine, close to Anne of Austria, welcomed the queen. Under Henriette de Montmorin (XVIIIth), architect Augustin de Luzy reconstructs the buildings, including the wing still occupied today.

The Merovingian crypt, exceptionally preserved, houses the cenotaphs of the founders (Adon, Telchide, Agilbert, etc.) and remains of a 8th century building, discovered under Saint Paul's Square. The Revolution dispersed the nuns in 1792 and the church was sold stone by stone. In the 19th century, Benedictines of Pradines raised the abbey, buying part of the buildings to make it a place of spiritual retreats and artisanal production (crèches, ceramics).

Today, the Benedictine community perpetuates the ora and labora rule, combining prayer and artisanal work. The abbey swarmed with foundations such as Regina Laudis Abbey (United States, 1947) or La Paix-Notre-Dame Monastery (Sarthe, 1946). Ranked in 1840, it remains a unique testimony of monastic architecture from the 7th to the 18th century in Île-de-France.

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