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Origin and history

The Abbey of Sellières, founded in 1167 by Hugues, lord of Romilly, was a Cistercian abbey located in the present Aube department. In 1235 Bishop Nicolas de Brie consecrated the church there, probably after work. Destroyed in 1567 during the wars of religion by the Huguenots, it was rebuilt shortly afterwards. A fall in the cloister in 1756 led to the transfer of the tombs to the parish church.

The abbey is best known for hosting the burial of Voltaire from 1778 to 1791. Due to the opposition of the ecclesiastical authorities to religious funerals, his body was secretly transported to Sellières, where his nephew, Alexandre-Jean Mignot, was a trading abbot. In 1791 the abbey, sold as a national property, saw its remains transferred to the Pantheon by decision of the Constituent Assembly.

Today, only the abbey house, built in the second half of the eighteenth century, remains. This building, which was added to the additional inventory of historical monuments in 1988, bears witness to the abbey's turbulent history. Sellières was a daughter of Pontigny Abbey, and his abbots, such as Denis-François Bouthillier de Chavigny or Marc-René des Ruaux de Rouffiac, marked his history.

The abbey illustrates the links between religious power, aristocracy and intellectuals of the Enlightenment. Its partial destruction and its transformation into a national good during the French Revolution reflected the political and social upheavals of the time. The site remains a major architectural and historical testimony of the Greater East region.

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