Discovery of a Cistercian abbey transformed into a prison in the 19th century

Name: Descubrimiento de una abadía cisterciense transformada en prisión en el siglo XIX
Start: 2022-09-17T10:00:00+02:00
End: 2022-09-18T19:00:00+02:00
Location: Abbaye de Clairvaux

Come and discover this old 12th century abbey transformed into a prison by Napoleon!

17 i 18 septiembre 2022Passed

Herramientas de registro

03 25 27 52 55

©Direction de l'Administration Pénitentiaire

The «classical» visit includes the discovery of the 12th century conversions building (storeroom, dormitory, refectory) and the 18th century Grand Cloister transformed into a prison in the 19th century (in operation until 1971):
Saturday and Sunday at 11am, 2pm, 3:30pm and 5:15pm. Duration: about 1h30.
Exceptionally, a derelict part of the Clairvaux Central House, a former disciplinary and isolated district (QIQD), will be open to visitors:
Saturday and Sunday at 10h, 13h, 15h and 17h. Duration: about 2h. On reservation.
Price: 5€ per person - Free for children under 25.
As a reminder, tours are only guided and all adults must come with their identification.
And all weekend, on the floor of the Hostellerie des Dames (reception building):
Exhibition «Trois Fontaines, by Pierre de Guerre... Poetic reverie in the heart of the ruins of a Clairvaux girl» commented by the artists. Screening of a 36-minute audiovisual creation on Saturday at 4pm and Sunday at 10h30 followed by an exchange with the artists.
Free - Without reservation.

About the location

Abbaye de Clairvaux

Bourg, 10310 Ville-sous-la-Ferté

Aube
Grand Est

Founded in 1115 in a remote place of southern Champagne, the abbey of Clairvaux was found in just over a century, thanks to the personality of St.Bernard, at the head of a filiation of more than three hundred houses applying the Cistercian reform.
This influence is reflected in successive reconstructions of ever more imposing buildings, up to the great cloister of the eighteenth century. The Revolution dispersed the monks and the purchase of the site by the State in 1808 saved the buildings of the former abbey, with the exception of the church, by installing the largest detention house in France. This site, so full of history, where the prison function is in the process of ending, is today both a high place of the Cistercian world and an important testimony of confinement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.