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Origin and history

According to legend, a monastery dedicated to the Virgin existed on the banks of the Loire from the seventeenth century before being destroyed by the Barbarians. In the middle of the 11th century, the bishop of Auxerre and the count of Nevers entrusted Hugues, Abbé de Cluny, with the foundation of a priory at La Charité. This first Clunisian settlement, consecrated in 1107, became a major step on the way to Compostela, favoring the rise and fortification of the city around the monastery. The construction campaigns were concentrated at the end of the 15th century (housing of the prior, porterie) and in the 17th-18th centuries, reflecting the classical monastic architecture of the era.

The decline began in the 16th century with the establishment of the regime of commende and the wars of Religion, during which Charity-on-Loire became a Protestant bastion. A fire ravages much of the prioral church and the convent buildings on 31 July 1559. The separation between the spiritual (directed by a claustral prior) and temporal (managed by laity) domains accelerates the decadence of the whole. The activity ceased permanently in 1790, when the estate was seized as a national property and divided into private lots.

Today, the former prioral domain, partially preserved, bears witness to this monastic and architectural past. Its history reflects the religious, political and social upheavals that marked Burgundy and France, from the clunisian climax to the Revolution. The preserved remains, especially those of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, illustrate the evolution of styles and uses over the centuries.

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