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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame de l'Épeau Abbey, located near Donzy (Nièvre), is a former Cistercian priory founded in the early thirteenth century. His church, the only remaining vestige, was listed as a historic monument in 1927. The ruins, perched on a promontory two kilometers from the village, dominate the Talvanne valley. This site was built at the initiative of Hervé IV de Donzy, Count of Nevers, and his wife Mahaut de Courtenay, forced by the Church to finance three monasteries to obtain a papal dispensation.

The priory, attached to the abbey of Val des Choues (Côte d'Or), adopted a hybrid monastic rule, mixing Benedictine, Cistercian and Chartreuse traditions (Ordo Valliscaulium). Built on a plateau nicknamed Lespau (derived from Spallum), it initially housed monks housed at the house of La Tresche, a Comtal property, pending the completion of the convent buildings. Few documents remain, but donations and burials of the De La Rivière family attest to its local importance.

The history of the priory was marked by repeated looting, reducing the whole to its present ruins. In the 18th century the bishop of Auxerre, Jean-Baptiste-Marie Champion de Cicé, found his state of disrepair and ordered his sale in 1773. Acquired by the Bar family, and then transmitted to their descendants, the site now belongs to Christine de Genouillac, who organizes sound and light shows there. The church, of primitive Gothic style, retained a nave of 53 meters and a lantern of 39 meters, partially transformed into a dwelling.

Private property, the abbey is visited by appointment for groups, via the tourist office of Donzy. The remains, including the left transept (now chapel) and the walls of the nave, offer an overview of its past extent. The site thus illustrates the decline of religious establishments under the Ancien Régime, between neglect of the comndataires and successive spoliations.

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