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Origin and history

The Abbey of Saint-Père-en-Vallée, founded in the 7th century by Queen Bathilde outside the walls of Chartres, was first a Benedictine monastery. She experienced conflicts with Bishop Hélie in the ninth century, pushing the monks to exile temporarily to Saint-Germain d'Auxerre. Ravaged by the Normans in 858 and 911, it was restored and fortified around 930 by Bishop Haganon, whose square tower remains serving as a bell tower. The abbey became a permanent Benedictine settlement in 954 under Bishop Rainfroy, and flourished until the Revolution.

In the 12th century, the abbey was integrated into the enclosure of Chartres, and its influence extended to 24 priories and 80 cures in several dioceses. In 1650 it joined the congregation of Saint-Maur, and its convent buildings were rebuilt in the 18th century. During the Revolution, only eight monks lived there, despite an annual income of £23,000. The abbey church, of Gothic style (XIIth–XIIIth centuries), became the parish church of Saint Peter in 1803.

The cartular of the abbey, published in 1840, consists of three parts: the Vetus Hagano (XI century), the Codex Argenteus (circa 1200), and archives reorganized in 1772 by Dom Muley. Among the treasures lost during the fire of the municipal library of Chartres in 1944 were 138 manuscripts of the abbey, including a catalog of the eleventh century that was located in 94 books. Today, there remains an 18th-century building housing two vaulted 12th-century rooms, classified as a historical monument and annexed to Marceau High School.

Commendatary abbots, like J.-A. de Veri (until 1781), marked its late history. The protected remains include the two vaulted rooms classified in 1916, while the rest of the abbey was inscribed in 1929. The building thus illustrates nearly a thousand years of monastic history, between destruction, reconstruction and adaptations to religious and political developments.

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