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Origin and history

The monastery of Coyroux, founded in 1142, was a female Cistercian establishment forming part of a double abbey with the male monastery of Aubazine. The two communities, although physically separated, were placed under the authority of the Abbé Aubazine. The nuns, enclosed in an absolute fence, depended entirely on the monks for their subsistence, receiving food and resources via a secure airlock system. The monastery, located in a valley surrounded by Coyroux Creek, was built with local materials, less noble than those used for the male monastery.

The founding of Coyroux is part of the desire of Stephen de Vielzot, founder of Obazine, to separate strictly the male and female communities for moral reasons. In 1147, the double abbey was attached to the order of Cîteaux. At its peak, at the end of the 12th century, the Coyroux housed 150 nuns. However, as early as the 14th century, economic difficulties arose, in particular because of the decline of the converse brothers in charge of manual work, forcing the abbey to rent its land.

In the 17th century, the monastery experienced a demographic decline and an internal crisis, marked by the departure of the prioress Jeanne de Badenfol in 1622, which founded a new monastery in Tulle. At the Revolution in 1790, the Coyroux was closed and sold as a stone quarry, leading to its progressive ruin. In the 20th century, archaeological excavations, conducted in 1976 by Bernadette Barrière, revealed the remains of the church and the convent buildings, classified as historical monuments in 1988.

The architecture of the Coyroux reflects its modest condition: built in local gneiss and joined to the earth, the monastery contrasted with the quality of the male buildings of Aubazine, built in carved sandstone. The site, often flooded by the Coyroux floods, was built on an artificial terrace, requiring the diversion of the stream. The excavations revealed an un arched square cloister, a central basin, and a church rebuilt in the 13th century, whose walls still partially remain.

The nuns lived in a strict fence, with extreme rules of separation: their space in the church was limited to the nave, separated from the choir by a wall pierced by an iron trellising. The exchanges with the monks took place through a narrow window for communion and a safe for the provisions. This organization, unique among the Cistercian monasteries, emphasized their total dependence on the male community, while offering them limited legal autonomy from the fourteenth century onwards.

Today, the remains of the Coyroux, owned by the municipality of Aubazines, are protected as historical monuments. Although partially destroyed, the site offers a rare testimony of the medieval double monasteries and their economic and social functioning. Archaeological research continues to shed light on its history, including academic work conducted in the 1970s and 1980s.

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