Abbaye de Villers-Canivet

Placy-Montaigu

Founded in 1127 by Roger de Montbray, the abbey of Sainte-Marie-aux-Dames at Villers-Canivet belonged first to the congregation of Savigny before joining the order of Citeaux twenty years later, in 1147, together with its mother house. For centuries, generations of Cistercian nuns lived in seclusion in the Calvados countryside, north of Falaise. Although the destruction of the Revolution carried off part of the site, Villers-Canivet has the good fortune to preserve an architectural treasure unique in France: its 14th-century gatehouse in fine Caen stone, the only medieval Cistercian gatehouse to have come down to us in its original state, and the only one known among abbeys of women. To it are added a tithe barn of the 16th–17th centuries and a lodging mixing medieval and modern periods, the whole ringed by an abbey enclosure marked out by 1,685 metres of walls. Bought by devoted owners, the abbey has been the object of systematic restoration since 1976, honoured in 1997 by the national prize of the Vieilles Maisons françaises — a rebirth that today allows one to appreciate all the finesse of Cistercian architecture in its feminine form.

Getting there : North of Falaise, in the commune of Placy-Montaigu, near Fontaine-le-Pin (Calvados)

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

Ambient sound