Chartreuse Notre-Dame de Portes

Bénonces

Perched in the forests of the Bugey, the charterhouse of Portes is one of the oldest Carthusian "deserts" in the world. In 1115, two monks from the abbey of Ambronay, Bernard and Ponce, climbed the mountain in search of a more solitary life; their hermitage adopted the customs of the Grande Chartreuse before 1128, making Portes "the first house in France to rally" to Saint Bruno's fledgling order. Around the monastery stretched the "desert", an enclosed territory where only the monks could acquire land, and where silence has remained the law. The spiritual reputation of Portes spread far and wide: in 1151, a brilliant Savoyard churchman, Anthelm, overwhelmed by what he found there, took the Carthusian habit; later prior of the Grande Chartreuse and then bishop of Belley, Saint Anthelm has remained the patron of the diocese. Ruined by the epidemics and wars of the 17th century, the house was entirely rebuilt in the 1640s by Dom Joseph Monnier, who gave it its classical appearance: twelve monks' cells around the great cloister. Abandoned at the Revolution, bought back by the order in 1855, emptied by the expulsions of 1901, it regained its monks seventy years later. To this day, the Carthusians of Portes live from the work of their forests, invisible and present. There is no visiting; but from the path above the grey roofs, the traveller can measure what nine centuries of silence have laid upon this mountain.

Getting there : Above Bénonces (Bas-Bugey), by the small mountain road signposted towards Portes/Ordonnaz; the site can only be approached from outside, respecting the enclosure of the monastic "desert" and the silence of the place.

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

Ambient sound