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Origin and history

The priory of the Colombe, located in Brissac-Quincé in Maine-et-Loire, has its origins before the 12th century, probably as a dependency of the abbey of the Trinity of Vendôme. In 1040, Geoffroy Martel and Agnes de Bourgogne founded this abbey and gave it land around Brissac. In 1132, the abbey abandoned its local estates to the priory of the Bishop of Angers, while retaining the right to appoint the prior of the Colombe. A papal bubble of 1135 confirms its attachment to the pontifical and comtal authority of Anjou. Under the Ancien Régime, the priory came under the parish of Saint-Saturnin before being attached to Brissac in 1788.

The first mention of a prior named, Brother Nicolas, dates from 1221, when the present chapel, still visible in the old cemetery, was built. The priory then has agricultural infrastructures (grange, press, bakery) and seigneurial rights, such as the appointment of the schoolmaster in Brissac. In the 16th century, it was placed as a beginning under Guillaume Richer. Its income, estimated at £300 at the end of the 17th century, comes from its land and royalties, such as the bank kiln sold in 1540.

The French Revolution marked a turning point: priory goods were sold as national goods in 1791 in Vihiers. Part of the buildings, demolished or transformed, became a bourgeois home, while land was transferred to the municipality to build the town hall and houses. The chapel, classified as a historical monument in 1969, remains the main vestige of this monastic past, although remodeled. Its history reflects the religious, seigneurial and social changes of medieval and modern Anjou.

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