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Origin and history

The abbey of Notre-Dame de la Chaume, founded in the 11th century in Machecoul, emerged from a rivalry between the abbeys of Angers, Tours and Redon to control the salicier zone of Baye de Bretagne. In 1055 Harscoët de Retz, lord of Sainte-Croix and vassal of Duke Conan II, gave to the monks of Redon a chapel dedicated to Notre-Dame de Pitié, a cemetery, land and a mill. This site, known as sterile and covered with poppies, becomes a Benedictine priory thanks to the expertise of the religious in saunery and agricultural development.

The pre-existing chapel, a pilgrimage centre before the year 1000, already houses Merovingian tombs, seven of which are decorated with mysterious motifs. In 1063, a Romanesque cloister was built, and the priory was erected as an abbey in 1092, with nine monks. The abbey is enriched with two chapels (Notre-Dame and Saint-Jean-Baptiste, future parish church), and its revenues come from salt marshes, tithes, and local fiefs such as Fresnay-en-Retz or Sainte-Pazanne.

Under the influence of the Barons of Retz and then the bishops of Nantes, the abbey was in financial crisis (1373, 1554). In the 17th century, Jean-François de Gondi, Abbé Commondataire, reformed the community by introducing the monks of the Société de Bretagne, before their forced attachment to the congregation of Saint-Maur. In 1768, for lack of resources, the last four monks left the site, leaving only one novice. The buildings, sold during the Revolution, were partly destroyed to rebuild the church of Fresnay-en-Retz.

The abbey had a 15th century oriented church (36 m long), a cloister redone in the 17th century, square gardens with orchard and pond, and an 18th century pigeon tree (600 nest boxes), the only major vestige still standing. The site, searched by an association since 1990, reveals walls of enclosure, sarcophagi, and traces of kitchens (oven capable of cooking 1,720 breads/day). The archives, burned in 1790 by Dom Soulastre, deprive the story of details about his relics (saint André, True Cross) and his liturgical furniture.

Today, the ASAC association preserves the ruins (gate, dovecote, layout of buildings) and organizes demonstrations in a green theatre. The site, once the spiritual and economic heart of the Land of Retz, bears witness to the influence of the Benedictine people in Brittany, between salicultural exploitation, seigneurial power, and Marian devotion. Its decline reflects the religious and political upheavals from the beginning to the Revolution.

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