ABBEY DE VAULUISANT
Festival of Music at XII Century Cistercian Monastery
Every
June for the past 30 years the chords of strings and ivories have replaced
the long forgotten echoes of monastic prayers at the ancient
Abbey of Vauluisant in the tiny town of Courgenay in the valley of the
Yonne river
near Villeneuve
l'Archevêque between Troyes and Sens. The Music Festival
de Vauluisant (Resonances de Vauluisant) consists of three days of Piano
Concertos and Jazz quartets in the monastery originally constructed in
the early
XII
Century.
In 1127 a group of monks of
the monastery established at Preuilly, in the Seine et Marne region,
came to settle in this valley. The Cistercian
order were followers of St Bernard of Clairvaux (see St
Bernard and Chatillon -su-Seine) a supporter of the Crusades
and the Templar Knights (see Hugues
de Payns Museum). The order at its
height
has over
500 monasteries
stretching
from Paris to Jerusalem, with many of the important ones in the Champagne
and Burgundy regions of France (see Abbey
Fontenay).
The
Abbey at Vauluisant was originally claimed from swampy flatland, transformed
by earth dams
and later stone
walls which still today fully
surround the monastic compound. The monks made income from wood carving
and tile production sold in the markets of Troyes (see Troyes
Medieval Cork of Aube Champagne).
In the hard times of the Hundred Years War and following the monastery
was ransacked
many
times. The monastery was restored and thrived in the XIV and XV centuries
but again cam under attack during the religious wars of the XVI, until
the Cistercians were reformed under Cardinal Richelieu (see Abbey
Cluny).
In the 1700’s the abbey was reputed to be one of
the most beautiful of the Cistercian Monasteries, but ravaged during
the
revolution
and
turned into disuse and wreckage, ultimately falling into private hands
in the 1800’s and turned into a farm. The Gamby family acquired
the property in the 1960’s and restored the Chapel of Saint
Madeleine, barns and common areas. It is still a working farm. The
Abbey at Vauluisant
is private property but can be visited with appointment
April to October and regular tours every Sunday in July and August.
If
you
come
at other
times
the
workers
will wave you away.
Tickets
and reservations for the festival "Resonances de Vauluisant" can
be made through the website (in
French) or through the tourism office in Sens. The €14 ticket price
is a bargain for Chopin, Mozart, Liszt, Bach and Brahms to be heard in
the once holy surroundings of 900
years of history. For a
nearby Bed & Breakfast
Hotel Villenueve L’Archeveque has the Auberge
des Vieux Moulins Banaux. The Vaulisant Abbey property also has
some cottage lodgings for groups but during the festival the musicians
stay there. © Bargain
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See Also:
AUBERGE LA LUCARNE AUX CHOUETTES
NOGENT-SUR-SEINE - CHATEAU LE MOTTE-TILLY
PROVINS
- MEDIEVAL CITY
FAMILY
FUN AND CHAMPAGNE
