Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Abbey of Saint Magloire of Léhon, founded in the 9th century by Nominoë, was first a wooden monastery housing the relics of Saint Magloire, transferred from the island of Sercq. Destroyed by the Vikings in 910, it was rebuilt in stone around 1008 by monks returning from Paris, where they had founded a sister abbey. The priory became royal after his attachment to the Abbey of Marmoutier, under the supervision of the Dukes of Brittany and the kings of France.

In the 12th century, Pierre Mauclerc undertook a major reconstruction of the abbey, whose abbey church (1190-1210) has a unique vaulted nave and a flat bedside. The abbey, prosperous thanks to its lands and tithes in Brittany and England, was looted in 1168 by Henry II of England, then rebuilt. In the 14th century, it housed the sepulchral chapel of Beaumanoir, a noble Breton family, and was enriched with stained glass and gissers, including those of John IV and John V of Beaumanoir.

In the 17th century, the Maurists restored the cloister and the convent buildings, adding a boat frame and a refectory with a reader's chair. The abbey declined after its abolition in 1767, sold as national property in 1792. Turned into a brasserie and then a spinning plant in the 19th century, it was partially restored between 1885 and 1991, becoming a parish church and a museum site hosting gissants, Romanesque capitals and a 20th century organ.

The treasure of the Abbey includes a reliquary of Saint Magloire, a 14th century statue, and liturgical fabrics of the 18th century. The ruins also preserve medieval elements such as the door to the cemetery (XIVth century), the gothic lights, and the 13th-XIVth century stained glass windows, restored in 2016. The site, classified as a historic monument in 1875, illustrates the influence of Benedictine and Maurist orders in Brittany, as well as the links between royal power and local aristocracy.

The history of the abbey is marked by legends, such as that of the six Welsh monks who stole the relics of Saint Magloire to obtain land of Nominoë. The archives also reveal its economic role, with revenues from tithes, mills and bailliages in more than twenty Breton parishes. Today, the abbey museum exhibits Romanesque capitals, ancient books, and traces this millennium history, between spirituality, power and architectural heritage.

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