Abbaye Notre-Dame de Jouarre et sa crypte mérovingienne

Jouarre

On the plateau of the Brie, above the valley of the Petit Morin, Jouarre keeps one of the oldest treasures of Western Christendom: a Merovingian crypt counted among the most ancient in Europe. The abbey was founded around 635 by Ado, a disciple of the Irish monk Saint Columbanus, at a time when the evangelisation of Gaul went by way of these "double" monasteries uniting monks and nuns. The crypt of Saint-Paul, commissioned by Bishop Agilbert in the reign of Clothar III, served as a funerary basilica for the founding family: one descends between two rows of reused Gallo-Roman columns, crowned with white marble capitals of a finesse astonishing for the period. There lie Theodechilde, the first abbess, who died around 660 and whose sarcophagus is carved with shells, and Agilbert himself, Bishop of Wessex and then of Paris, whose coffin, carved with a Christ in Majesty surrounded by praying figures, is one of the rare images of the Last Judgement in Merovingian art. Pilgrims once came to venerate the founders' tombs in the wooden basilica that extended the crypt. Fourteen centuries later, monastic life has almost never been interrupted: some thirty Benedictine nuns still live in the abbey, whose mighty Romanesque tower can also be visited. Few places in Île-de-France offer such a sense of plunging back to the wellsprings of the earliest Christianity.

Getting there : Place Saint-Paul, 77640 Jouarre; crypts accessible by guided tour (tickets from the tourist office, seasonal hours, steep staircase), Romanesque tower and abbey church also open to visitors; information on 01 64 03 88 09.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound