Abbaye du Moutier-d'Ahun et ses boiseries

Moutier-d'Ahun

In 997, Boson II, Count of La Marche, gave a church on the banks of the Creuse to Benedictine monks from Saint-Pierre d'Uzerche: thus was born the "moutier" of Ahun, a prosperous monastery that would spread its influence across three dioceses. History treated it roughly — the Hundred Years' War, the sack of 1591 during the Wars of Religion — and it took the return of Cluniac monks in 1610–1612 for the place to be reborn. It was then that the miracle of Moutier took place: from 1673, the sculptor Simon Bauer, who came from the Auvergne, lined the choir of the abbey church with oak woodwork that ranks among the most astonishing in France. Twenty-six stalls, a monumental altarpiece, a lectern borne by two lions back to back, and everywhere an exuberant bestiary in which Christianity converses with mythology: sphinxes, sirens, tritons, squirrels and dolphins run across the dark wood. The ensemble, a masterpiece of Baroque art in the midst of Limousin granite, long slept beneath coats of white paint, which the Abbé Malapert set about stripping away in the 20th century to give the wood back its lustre. Outside, a garden occupies the site of the vanished nave, between the carved Gothic portal of 1489 and the surviving east end — a church open to the sky. Below, the old Romanesque bridge with its cutwaters still spans the Creuse, on the path once taken by monks and muleteers. Few places in the Creuse pack so many stories into so small a village.

Getting there : In the village of Moutier-d'Ahun, between Ahun and the Creuse valley. Admission charge (€3.50 to €5.50 depending on audio guide), open afternoons out of season, mornings and afternoons in July–August; check opening times with the site (05 55 62 55 93).

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

Ambient sound