Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de la Rode, originally a Cistercian monastic barn, was founded in 1258 on land given by Jourdain de Saissac. Depending on the Abbey of Ardorel (XII century), it was fortified after a fire and served as a refuge for the surviving monks of the Wars of Religion in 1586. The religious, decimated during the massacre of their mother abbey, restored a monastic community there for two centuries.

In 1789 the abbey had only three monks and no abbey. Closed during the Revolution, it was sold as national property in 1791, without traces of chapel or church in inventories. No destruction was recorded before 1819. The site, transformed into a castle, became the property of the Falguerolles family in 1933, then of the Géli in 2015, who restored it and obtained the label "Historical Heritage" in 2018.

Although located in the former diocese of Lavaur, the abbey remained under the authority of the bishop of Castres, an inheritance of his origin linked to Ardorel. The trading abbots performed their role there until the Revolution, but no precise register of the number of monks was kept. The size of the buildings, however, suggests a once large community.

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