Abbaye de Cadouin

Le Buisson-de-Cadouin

Founded in 1115 in a remote valley of the forest of Bessède, this Cistercian abbey owes all its medieval fame to a relic attested at Cadouin from 1214: a cloth presented as the shroud that had covered Christ's head, said by legend to have been brought back from the Holy Land by a priest from Périgord after the First Crusade and recovered by the monks in 1117. The shroud led an eventful existence — spirited away from Cadouin to Toulouse in 1392 to keep it out of English hands, displayed before the archbishop and thirty thousand faithful, stolen by night by young monks in 1455 to bring it home — before drawing, for seven centuries, immense crowds of pilgrims, until 1934. That year, a scientific examination revealed the truth: the cloth, decorated with Kufic inscriptions in praise of an 11th-century Fatimid caliph of Egypt, had no connection whatsoever with Christ. The pilgrimage stopped dead, but the abbey and its Flamboyant Gothic cloister, listed by UNESCO as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela, have lost none of their architectural splendour.

Getting there : Admission charge

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

Ambient sound