The Abbey of Silvacane, located in the Commune of La Roque d'Anthéron, stands between the Luberon and the Côte des Cotes chain on the left bank of the Durance, a communication road and transhumance path.
The chosen location is a rocky area, overlooking the Durancian swamps, not far from a first inn built in the eleventh century by pontier monks at the level of a ford crossing the river: the ford of Gontard.
The monks manage to take advantage of the site thanks to their knowledge of drainage and agriculture.
Alongside the development of new land, local seigneurial families multiplied donations. Bertrand des Baux undertook the construction of the church in 1175.
The 12th and 13th centuries marked the spiritual and economic development of Silvacane, who founded the Abbey of Valsainte (diocese of Apt). It has five barns, managed by the convers brothers, monks who have not made wishes, devoting themselves mainly to manual work.
The decline began at the end of the 13th century. The invasion of the Abbey by the monks of Montmajour, the Great Plague, civil discord, the Hundred Years' War, the weakening of the monastic orders (partly linked to the appearance of the printing press, taking away from the monks their role as copyists) shook Silvacane.
In 1455, the Abbey was attached to the chapter of the cathedral of Aix-en-Provence and became the parish church of La Roque d'Anthéron when the village was created in 1513.
From the end of the 16th century, Protestants and Catholics successively occupied the abbey. Deprived of its religious function, the abbey soon reduced itself to the role of stone quarries.
In 1742, the church was disused in favor of that of La Roque d'Anthéron.
Declared national property during the Revolution, the abbey was transformed into a farm. The church was bought by the State in 1846 and restored by Revoil then Formigé, architects of the Historical Monuments. The whole, classified as Historical Monuments, is acquired by the State in 1945.
Excavation campaigns carried out between 1952 and 1998 allowed to find the location of the annex buildings and to undertake the restoration of the rooms of the Abbey, which are currently all open to visitors. Since January 2008, the abbey is owned by the municipality of La Roque d'Anthéron.