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Origin and history

The abbey of Notre-Dame de Fontgombault, founded in 1091 by Pierre de l'Étoile and his fellow hermits, settles on the right bank of the Creuse, near the fountain of Gombaud. Under the rule of St Benedict, the community is rapidly developing, requiring the construction of an abbey church. Pierre de l'Etoile died in 1114, and his successors, Abbé Guillaume and Airaud, continued the expansion of the abbey, which founded about twenty priories in the 12th and 13th centuries. During the Hundred Years' War, the abbey was occupied by the English (1369-1372) before being liberated by Du Guesclin. A fortified round tower, still visible today, bears witness to this troubled period.

In the 15th century, the abbots of Fontgombault contributed to local economic development by digging ponds, thereby promoting fish farming in Brenne. The sixteenth century was marked by looting: first by mercenaries at the service of the family of François de Sully, then in 1569 by Calvinists, who set fire to the abbey. Despite these destructions, John d'Harambure, a Huguenot close to Henry IV, became the abbot in 1609. The abbey was restored at the end of the seventeenth century by dom Nicolas Andrieu, Prior from 1674 to 1705, before being entrusted to the lazarists in 1741, who established a seminary there until 1786.

The French Revolution was a severe blow to the abbey: sold as a national good, it was partially destroyed and used as a stone quarry. Only the cloister and some remains remain. In 1849, Trappists bought the site and founded a kirsch distillery, but the anti-congregation laws of 1904 forced them into exile. The abbey then became a button factory, then a Belgian military hospital during the First World War. From 1919 to 1948, a diocesan seminary was established there before its closure due to lack of vocations.

In 1948, the abbey was revived by Germain Cozien, abbot of Solesmes, who restored a Benedictine community of twenty-two monks. Today, it has nearly seventy monks and has swarmed by founding four other abbeys, including Clear Creek in the United States. The abbey, classified as a historical monument since 1862, is a high place of the Gregorian liturgy and the tridentine form of the Roman rite. Its Romanesque architecture, with a stroll and radiant chapels, makes it a masterpiece of medieval art.

The abbey, from plan to Latin cross, is distinguished by its choir with double sides and its five absidial chapels. Its facade, typical of the Poitevin Romanesque style, is devoid of tympanum but adorned with curved archivolts. The impressive dimensions (80.40 m long, 22.70 m for the dome) underline its historical importance. Autonomous in energy thanks to a power station on the Creuse, the abbey remains an active place of monastic life, marked by recent events, such as welcoming controversial personalities or international liturgical symposia.

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