Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The abbey of Vaux-de-Cernay was founded in 1118 by Abbé Artaud under the order of Savigny, on a gift from Simon III of Neauphle. First built of wood, it was rebuilt in stone from 1145 after remediation work. In 1147, his attachment to Cîteaux made him a Cistercian abbey under the influence of Clairvaux. The 12th and 13th centuries marked its apogee, with close ties to the local nobility, royalty (like Louis IX) and papacy. Guy des Vaux-de-Cernay, 6th abbot, became bishop of Carcassonne after participating in the Albigois Crusade.

In the 14th century, the abbey declined due to wars (Cent Years) and epidemics. Despite attempts at restoration in the 16th and 17th centuries, his passage into the beginning (1542) weakened his financing. She welcomed figures such as Henri de Bourbon-Verneuil (the illegitimate son of Henry IV) or John II Casimir Vasa, former king of Poland. In the 18th century, major works (south gallery, cloister) gave a temporary shine to the monastery, before its brutal dissolution in 1791 during the Revolution. Saint Thibaut's relics were burned, and buildings sold as national goods.

In the 19th century, Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild bought the ruins in 1873 and undertook a restoration inspired by the Anglican style, preserving the Gothic remains. The estate became a private place in the 20th century, even housing statues of Versailles during the Second World War. In 1988, it was transformed into a hotel and tourist complex, before being classified as a historical monument in 1994. Today, after a complete renovation in 2023, it houses a luxury five star hotel.

The architecture of the abbey is distinguished by its 80-metre capitular hall (one of the largest in France), its Renaissance cloister, and outbuildings such as the barn of Ithe (XII century). The site, located in the Chevreuse valley, was also a filming venue for films and series (Thierry la Fronde, Emily in Paris). His archives, studied by the Archaeological Society of Rambouillet, remain accessible to the public.

The abbey illustrates the changes of French religious monuments: medieval spiritual and intellectual center, post-revolutionary aristocratic property, and then contemporary tourist heritage. Its history reflects political upheavals (wars, revolution) and social recompositions, while maintaining a tangible trace of Cistercian influence in Île-de-France.

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