Abbaye Notre-Dame de l'Eau

Ver-lès-Chartres

In April 1226, Countess Elisabeth I and her second husband Jean de Montmirail founded, at the gates of Chartres, an abbey of Cistercian nuns that would take the name "Eau-lez-Chartres" from the watercourses that irrigated its estate. The house went through the great trials of the Middle Ages: during the Hundred Years' War, the nuns had to flee to Chartres between 1337 and 1361 to escape the depredations. Worse still, in 1568, at the height of the Wars of Religion, the Huguenots almost entirely destroyed the abbey, forcing the community into a complete rebuilding. Declared national property at the Revolution, the abbey was dissolved in 1792 and its abbey church razed. For more than two centuries, the site sank into near-total oblivion, a private property unknown to the general public. Only in 2010–2011, thanks to a meticulous restoration, did the 13th-century gatehouse, sections of the enclosure and the 18th-century abbatial palace regain a second youth, allowing visitors to rediscover this discreet jewel nestled at the gates of the city of Chartres, in the shadow of its famous cathedral.

Getting there : About 5 km south of Chartres, in the commune of Ver-lès-Chartres (Eure-et-Loir)

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

Ambient sound