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Origin and history

The Abbey of Saint-Cybard found its origins in the sixth century, when the hermit Saint Cybard settled in a cave beneath the northern rampart of Angoulême. A basilica is dedicated to it by Gregory of Tours, and a group of hermits settles there. In 852, a document confirmed his property, but it was destroyed by the Vikings in 863, then rebuilt around 950 thanks to Count Guillaume Ier Taillefer and Bishop Foucaud. It became a Benedictine abbey, then Clunisian around 1096.

In the 16th century, the wars of Religion ravaged the abbey: in 1568, Protestants took it and ruined it, leaving only the north side of the church and some chapels. Marie de Medici visited in 1619, fascinated by a chapel of the Counts of Angoulême, whose dry ground in the middle of a damp space is considered a miracle. She discovers a chest full of relics.

The abbey, sold as a national property in 1791, became an industrial site in the 19th century with a stationery and a brewery. The excavations of 1619 and 1912 revealed medieval remains, while rehabilitation in 1984 preceded the installation of CNBDI. Today, elements of the 13th, 16th and 17th centuries, such as the abbey house, vaulted cellars and vestiges of the cloister, remain.

The architecture of the abbey reflects its evolution: the abbey church, with a single nave, was destroyed in the 18th century, while the refectory became a new church. The cloister, 30 m by 25 m, adjoins the 14th century capitular hall. The Abbatial house, rebuilt between 1640 and 1688, contrasts with the medieval parts. Reinforced walls in the 16th century and an angle doorway complete the whole.

The successive destructions (Normandes, Wars of Religion, Revolution) have erased much of the abbey, but the remaining remains bear witness to its historical importance. Archaeological excavations and industrial transformations marked its landscape, before its partial preservation as a historical monument in 2007.

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