Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The royal abbey of St. John's Angely, founded in 817 by Pépin I of Aquitaine, was first a place of major pilgrimage thanks to the relic of the skull of St. John the Baptist. After repeated looting by the Vikings, the relic was found in 1010, allowing the reconstruction of the monastery under the impulse of Duke William. With Geoffroy Martel d'Anjou and his wife in 1047, she became one of the most powerful abbeys in the West, attracting thousands of pilgrims.

The Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion marked its decline: looted in 1562 and destroyed in 1568, it definitively lost its relic. The monks rebuilt the abbey in the 17th century in a classic style, with French roofs and skylights decorated with pine apples. The cloister, disassembled in 1805, was brought up to the town hall square as a covered market, then a festive hall.

The abbey welcomed illustrious figures like Louis XIV and the Duke of Anjou, the future king of Spain. After the Revolution, she became a college, then a high school. Today it houses the municipal library, a music school and a digital museum (Micro-Folie). Its refectory, decorated with 18th-century grey paints, and its rococo chimneys testify to its prestigious past.

The north tower maintains a ringing of four bells, the oldest of which date from 1803, marked by the inscription "An XI of the French Republic". These bells come from the nearby Saint John Baptist church. The abbey, classified as a historical monument, remains a dynamic cultural place, welcoming exhibitions and events all year round.

Future

The Abbey Royale is one of the 71 monuments as well as 7 portions of paths have been inscribed since 1998 on the UNESCO World Heritage List under the official title of "Chemins de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle en France".

It is on the way to Via Turonensis or "Voice de Tours" which starts from the Saint-Jacques Tower in Paris.

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