Abbaye Notre-Dame de Voisins

Saint-Ay

In 1214 the Bishop of Orléans, Manasses, installed a community of Cistercian nuns at Voisins, on the banks of the Loire, on the site of a house of men suppressed two years earlier. Thanks to the generosity of the local lords and the privileges granted by the crown, the abbey prospered rapidly and became a spiritual anchor for the whole Orléans region. Its history runs through the great upheavals of the kingdom: burnt by English troops in 1358 in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, it later served as a refuge for the nuns during the siege of Orléans in 1428, the very year in which Joan of Arc delivered the nearby city. The troubles of the Reformation and then the Jansenist quarrels of the 18th century ended up weakening the community, until Louis XVI ordered its closure in 1774; the abbey was officially suppressed in 1778, even before the Revolution. Dismantled in the early 19th century, it left standing only the former residence of the abbess, today restored as a private home under the name of "Château de Voisins", surrounded by a park through which the peaceful river Mauve flows.

Getting there : Hamlet of Voisins, commune of Saint-Ay, 15 km north-west of Orléans (Loiret)

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

Ambient sound