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Origin and history

The building of La Charité-sur-Loire is part of the history of a priory founded in the 11th century by Hugues, Abbé de Cluny, at the request of the Bishop of Auxerre and the Count of Nevers. This first clunisian priory, consecrated in 1107, became a major step on the road to Compostela, favoring the rise and fortification of the city around the monastery. The construction campaigns were concentrated in the late 15th century (housing of the prior, porterie) and in the 17th and 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, La Charité-sur-Loire becoming a Protestant bastion. A fire ravaged much of the prioral church and the convent buildings on 31 July 1559. The separation between spiritual (claustral) and temporal (civilian) domains accelerated decadence. The activity finally ceased in 1790, when the estate was seized and divided into private lots.

According to a local legend, a monastery dedicated to the Virgin existed on this site from the 17th century before being destroyed by the Barbarians. However, no archaeological or documentary evidence confirms this hypothesis until the clunisian foundation in the 11th century. The priory thus illustrates the influence of the order of Cluny in Burgundy and the religious upheavals of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

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