27 May 2023 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 8 minutes
© Arnaud 25/cc-by-sa-4.0
Cîteaux Abbey (French: Abbaye de Cîteaux) is a
Catholic abbey located in
Saint-Nicolas-lès-Cîteaux, south of
Dijon,
France. It is notable for being the original house of the
Cistercian order. Today, it belongs to the
Trappists (also called the Cistercians of the Strict Observance). The abbey has about 35 members. The monks produce a
cheese branded under the abbey’s name, as well as caramels and honey-based candies.
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21 May 2023 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 7 minutes
Reproduction of a 1789 plan of the abbey © Frédéric BRICE/cc-by-sa-3.0
Morimond Abbey is a religious complex in
Parnoy-en-Bassigny,
Haute-Marne department, in the
Champagne-Ardenne region of
France. It was the fourth of the four great daughter abbeys of
Cîteaux Abbey, of primary importance in the spread of the
Cistercian Order, along with
La Ferté to the south,
Pontigny to the west and
Clairvaux to the north.
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11 December 2022 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 10 minutes
© Zairon/cc-by-sa-4.0
Pontigny Abbey, the church of which in recent decades has also been the
cathedral of the
Mission de France, otherwise the Territorial Prelature of Pontigny, was a
Cistercian monastery located in
Pontigny on the River
Serein, in the present
diocese of Sens and department of
Yonne,
Burgundy,
France. Founded in 1114, it was the second of the four great daughter houses of
Cîteaux Abbey. It was suppressed in 1791 in the
French Revolution and destroyed except for the church. In 1843 it was re-founded as a community of the
Fathers of St. Edmund. In 1909 it passed into private ownership. In 1941 it became the mother house of the Mission de France, a
territorial prelature.
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4 November 2022 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 10 minutes
The cloister © Jjpetite/cc-by-sa-4.0
The Abbey of Fontenay is a former
Cistercian abbey located in the
commune of
Marmagne, near
Montbard, in the
département of
Côte-d’Or in
France. It was founded by
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1118, and built in the
Romanesque style. It is one of the oldest and most complete Cistercian abbeys in Europe, and became a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. Of the original complex comprising church,
dormitory,
cloister,
chapter house,
caldarium,
refectory,
dovecote and
forge, all remain intact except the refectory and are well maintained. The Abbey of Fontenay, along with other Cistercian abbeys, forms a connecting link between Romanesque and
Gothic architecture.
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