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Origin and history

The Saint-Sauveur Priory, located on Saint-Étienne Island in Melun, is a major religious building built in limestone and sandstone. Its origins date back to the 10th century, as evidenced by the crypts discovered under the church choir. The construction ended under the reign of Robert II the Pious, and the building was transformed into a priory in the 12th century, leading to architectural changes such as the destruction of the southern collateral to implant a cloister. Given to the abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris in 1125 by Louis VI, then to Saint-Séverin de Château-Landon in 1170 by Louis VII, the priory declined in the 14th–15th centuries before being restored in the 16th century under the impulse of prior Jean Féron, who built dormitories and cells there.

In the 17th century, the priory was weakened by conflicts with its abbey-mother and the beginning. The bell tower, damaged during the League, was shot down in 1610. In 1690 the priory was attached to the Collège Notre-Dame de Melun, and his church, disused, became a salt attic. The Revolution dispersed its buildings, sold as national goods: the nave was converted into workshops and houses, while the roache chapel (in the northern collateral) was demolished in 1869. The cloister gradually disappeared in the 19th to 20th centuries, but excavations and restorations (especially in 2002–2003) revealed its historical importance.

Today, there are only significant remains: the eastern part of the church (absides, crypts of the tenth century, ogival vaults of the thirteenth century), a gallery of the cloister with dogive crosses, and the capitular hall. Archaeological excavations (since 2001) and mortar studies confirmed the foundation of the church in the 10th century, with a major reconstruction in the 11th century. The site, registered with the Historical Monuments since 1946, illustrates the architectural and religious evolution of Melun, from medieval to modern times.

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