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Abbey of Sainte-Anne de Moutons à Avranches dans la Manche

Patrimoine classé
Patrimoine religieux
Abbaye
Manche

Abbey of Sainte-Anne de Moutons

    2 Boulevard Jozeau Marigné
    50300 Avranches
Ownership of the municipality
Abbaye Sainte-Anne de Moutons
Abbaye Sainte-Anne de Moutons
Abbaye Sainte-Anne de Moutons
Crédit photo : Xfigpower - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

Renaissance
Temps modernes
Révolution/Empire
XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
1634
Foundation of the Abbey
1692
Transfer of nuns
1793
Expulsion of nuns
1840
Theatre development
1944
Allied bombardments
1974
Opening of the current theatre
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

Two galleries of the cloister, in the courtyard of the communal school of boys: inscription by decree of 24 October 1935; Puits, in the Jardin des Plantes : inscription by order of 24 October 1935

Key figures

Pierre-Daniel Huet - Bishop of Avranches Initiator of the transfer of nuns.
François Cheftel - Avranchais architect Designer of the theatre in 1840.
Marie-Magdeleine de Madaillan de Montataire - First abbess (1693-1704) Directed the community after 1692.

Origin and history

Sainte-Anne de Moutons Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery founded in 1634 on the lands of the Palet farmhouse in Avranches (Manche). Originally intended to welcome young daughters of noble families of Avranchin and Saint-Malo, he was transferred in 1692 under the impulse of Bishop Pierre-Daniel Huet, who installed the nuns of the Abbey of the Moutons at Saint-Clément, giving him his present name.

In 1793 the nuns were expelled and the monastery converted into barracks. Napoleon I handed him over to the city in 1810, but the War Department recovered him in 1818. After becoming a municipal property in 1828, it housed a school, an asylum, and a 450-seat theatre in 1840, designed by architect François Cheftel. During World War II, the 1944 bombings destroyed the chapel and the abbess' home.

Since 1974, the buildings have housed the Théâtre d'Avranches, the Cultural Centre and the School of Music. Two elements have been protected from historical monuments since 1935: the galleries of the cloister and a well transferred to the Jardin des Plantes. The abbey thus illustrates the successive transformations of a religious heritage into a civil and cultural space.

External links