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Monastery / hospiceAlpes-Maritimes

Abbaye de Lérins (île Saint-Honorat)

Cannes

Period
early 5th century (Honoratus); fortified tower-monastery 11th-15th century; Cistercians since 1869
What stands there
A community of twenty-one Cistercian monks still lives on the island where Honoratus settled in the early 5th century.

Off Cannes, the île Saint-Honorat bears the name of a man who came there to seek solitude. In the early 5th century, Honoratus settled there with a group of companions. Monks joined him, and the island became a monastery. Several bishops of Provence came from it, such as Maximus at Riez or Armentarius at Antibes. According to Wikipedia, Hilary and Caesarius, bishops of Arles, were also monks of Lérins. The fortified tower-monastery was built between the 11th and the 15th century. Prosper Mérimée placed it in 1840 on the first list of historic monuments. The island was abandoned at the end of the 18th century. In 1869, Cistercians from Sénanque settled there. There are twenty-one of them today, and they live from hospitality and the vineyard.

Abbaye de Lérins — L'île Saint-Honorat ↗

Further reading

Getting there: Île Saint-Honorat, off Cannes; crossing and visiting conditions to be checked with the abbey.

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

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Abbaye de Lérins (île Saint-Honorat)
Alberto Fernandez Fernandez · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

This place in the great stories

In the same department

All places — Alpes-Maritimes (18).