Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Abbey of Notre-Dame de Jouy, also known as the Abbey of Jouy-en-Brie or Jouy-le-Châtel, is a former Cistercian abbey founded in 1124 by Thibaut II, Count of Champagne. He donated it thanks to the initiative of two gentlemen, Pierre de Castel and Milon de Naudé. The abbey grew rapidly, allowing the foundation of four abbey-daughters: Bonlieu (1141), La Noë (1144), Pontaut (1151) and Sellières (1168). It became an influential place, thanks in particular to the donation of the forest of Jouy by Henri I of Champagne in 1156, a domain extending today on 1,632 hectares.

The abbey church, of Cistercian style, was 74 meters long and 20 wide, with a flat bedside pierced with narrow windows, typical of order. It housed remarkable tombs, including that of Simon de Beaulieu, Archbishop of Bourges, represented by lying on an enamelled copper tomb. Despite the initial ban on statues by Saint Bernard, the Abbey adopted a Virgin with the Child sitting in the 14th century. Between 1297 and 1479, she even had a Parisian outbuilding, originally named after the rue de Jouy in the 4th arrondissement.

The abbey experienced a decline under the regime of commende, despite the reparations carried out in 1685 by Brother François Romain, a Dominican monk, with the financial support of Louis II Phélypeaux de La Vrillière. Closed to the Revolution, it was sold as a national property and transformed into a farm. Today, only the bedside of the church, classified as a historical monument in 1942, and buildings converted to agricultural use remain. The property belonged to the Droulers family in the 20th century, including the man of letters Charles Droulers.

Daughter of Pontigny Abbey, Notre-Dame de Jouy was led by influential abbots, such as Pierre de Bellièvre, adviser to the Metz Parliament and then president of the requests in Paris in the 17th century. Its history reflects both the power of the Cistercians in Île-de-France and the upheavals linked to the Revolution, which marked the French religious heritage.

External links