Abbaye de Molesme, d'où partit Robert

Molesme

Molesme is the place Cîteaux wanted to leave. Around 1075, Robert, a monk from Champagne born near Troyes who had already led hermits in the forest of Collan, founded here a Benedictine abbey in which the aim was to return to the work of one's hands and to the poverty of the Rule. Success was its undoing: within twenty years, gifts of land, of tithes and of serfs had made Molesme a rich house, and some of the monks were scandalised. In the spring of 1098, with the agreement of the legate Hugh of Die, Robert left with twenty-one brothers, among them Alberic and Stephen Harding, to found the New Monastery of Cîteaux. He stayed there only a year: as early as 1099 the monks of Molesme, left without an abbot, obtained his return, and Robert died here in 1111; the Church canonised him in 1222. Molesme remained a great Benedictine abbey, mother of many priories, but it came badly through the wars: destroyed in 1472 during the Franco-Burgundian conflict, burnt by the Huguenots at the end of the 16th century, it was rebuilt in the 18th, and it is this classical abbey — a guest house of 1730, a vaulted south wing of 1754-1758 — that the Revolution sold and whose church, chapter house and library served as a quarry. There remain cellars of the 13th, 16th and 18th centuries, traces of the 15th-century cloister and gardens, which their owners open to visitors.

Wikipédia — Abbaye de Molesme ↗

Getting there : From Châtillon-sur-Seine by the D 965 and then the D 953 towards Laignes. A private estate under restoration, open for guided tours in season (from May to mid-September, every day except Saturday in the late afternoon, outside closure periods) and by appointment the rest of the year; enquire at the tourist office of the Pays châtillonnais. The village church of Sainte-Croix, the former chapel of the lay brothers, can be seen next door.

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

Ambient sound