Fontenay Abbey

During the 12th century, the Cistercian order, a movement back to the original spirit of monastic simplicity, spread throughout Europe. Fontenay Abbey, founded in 1118 by Saint Bernard, offers the perfect image of what used to be a great Cistercian abbey. At the heart of the Land of Arts and History of Auxois, this ideal "city", isolated in the middle of the woods, brings together within its enclosed plot everything the monks needed for the work of mind and body: around the cloister, the church, the chapter house, the scriptorium, the heating room, the forge (the oldest in Europe) and the former abbot’s residence. All buildings are still intact after more than eight centuries of history.