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Origin and history

The priory of the Jaillette, located in Louvaines in Maine-et-Loire, was founded in 1194 by the knight Geoffroy Ostoir upon his return from the third crusade. It is entrusted to the Augustine monks of the abbey of Mélinais, who send there six religious to build a monastery organized according to an atypical Cistercian plan: church to the north, capitular room and dormitory to the east, refectory to the south, and a central cloister with four spans. This unusual arrangement for a priory earned him the nickname of "abbey of the Jaillette". The buildings preserve traces of medieval frescoes and graves in the capitular hall, revealed by archaeological surveys.

In the 15th century, the decline in monastic vocations led the abbey of Mélinais to replace the monks with a civil administrator. The latter alters the south wing by adding a floor above the refectory and a defensive tower housing a spiral staircase. In 1607, the priory passed to the Jesuits of the Royal College of La Flèche, after negotiation between Henry IV and the pope. Their property remained until their expulsion in 1762, and was then passed on to the Fathers of the Christian Doctrine.

During the Revolution, the priory was requisitioned: the church became communal property, while the rest was sold as national property. A wall is erected in the cloister, partly dismantled to recover its stones. Turned into a farm in the 19th century, the site fell into ruins until André Sarazin warned about its condition in 1971. Rached in 2000 by private individuals, it has since been restored. The church and vestiges of the cloister were inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1926 and 1976.

The church, partly Romanesque (XI century for the original chapel), preserves wall paintings from the 12th and 16th centuries. The cloister, one of the three Romanesque copies in Pays de la Loire, lost part of its arcades, but elements were recovered and reinstated during restorations. The prioral house, renovated in the 16th and 18th centuries, has a Renaissance façade and octagonal staircase tower. In the west, a wall once closed the space reserved for conversants, now gone.

The priory illustrates the architectural and religious developments of Anjou, marked by the crusades, the Catholic Reformation, and revolutionary upheavals. Its hybrid plan, between priory and abbey, and its successive transformations make it a rare testimony of regional monastic history. Recent excavations and restorations have enabled structural and decorative elements to be found, offering a glimpse of medieval and modern monastic life.

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