Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

According to legend, a monastery dedicated to the Virgin was established on the banks of the Loire in the seventeenth century before being destroyed by the Barbarians. However, it was in the middle of the 11th century that the bishop of Auxerre and the count of Nevers entrusted Hugues, Abbé de Cluny, with the foundation of a priory at La Charité-sur-Loire. This first priory of Cluny Abbey, consecrated in 1107, became a major step on the road to Compostelle, promoting the development and fortification of the city around the monastery.

The major construction campaigns took place at the end of the 15th century with the construction of the dwelling of the prior and the porterry, and then in the 17th and 18th centuries, according to the classic criteria of monastic architecture. These works reflect the greatness of the period, but the decline began in the 16th century with the establishment of the regime of commende and the ravages of the wars of Religion, transforming Charity into a Protestant bastion.

A major fire on 31 July 1559 destroyed much of the prioral church and the convent buildings. The separation between spiritual and temporal domains, the latter being entrusted to civilians, accelerates the decline of the priory. The activity ceased permanently in 1790, when the entire estate was seized and divided into private lots, ending its monastic history.

Today, the former prioral estate, located in the 6th courtyard of the Château, bears witness to this rich and enlivened past, marked by phases of radiation followed by a gradual decline linked to the religious and political upheavals of modern France.

External links