Visit the excavations and discover the main discoveries. You can also take part in conferences on the history of the abbey and its treasure, as well as guided walks.

Programme of visits
Saturday 17:
10.30 – 11.15 : The History of the Grandmont Order (SASSAG)
11.30 – 12.15 : Conference «The hydraulic arrangements of the Grand Montane settlements» (André Larigauderie)
14h00 – 15h15 : Visit the site with archaeologists (Philippe Racinet)
15h30 – 16h15 Conference «Notaries in the 17th and 18th centuries» (Eugène Chantaraud)
16h30 – 17h30: Visit of the new garden of the abbey ( Françoise Lassoujade, Jean-Michel Bertrand)
Sunday 18:
10.30 – 11.15 Lecture “Le petit patrimoine de Saint-Sylvestre” (Gilles Valleton).
11.30 – 12.15 : Abbey heritage development projects (SASSAG).
14h00 – 15h15 : Visit the site with archaeologists (Philippe Racinet).
15h30 – 17h30 : Lecture on the management of ponds by monks and commented visit through the Wild Reserve. (Jean-Paul Morlier and Véronique Lucain).
The Abbey of Grandmont: a heritage to rediscover
As part of its third participation in the European Heritage Days, the Société des Amis de Saint-Sylvestre et de l'Abbaye de Grandmont (SASSAG, www.sassag.com) organizes the reception of visitors on the site of the Abbey of Grandmont and the discovery of its natural environment.
Conference visits will allow visitors to discover the remains of the abbey rediscovered since 2013, on the site belonging to the association, thanks to the archaeological excavations conducted each year by a team of the University of Picardy Jules Verne, under the direction of Professor Philippe Racinet.
The excavations of the years 2021 and 2022 have made it possible to clear an exceptional set of remains with the paving of the courtyard of the cloister, buildings in elevation and columns and capitals still in place. They will be presented for the first time to the JPOs.
Since 1820 and its complete demolition by a building contractor, nothing visible remained of this immense abbey but a chapel built with stones from the demolition and the few objects of worship that had been transported there.
After the first soundings in 2013, the excavations have allowed to clear the base of the walls and the floor of the nave of the primitive church as well as the magnificent construction of the bedside more to the east. A burial zone separated into several areas of different eras has allowed the updating of a large number of burials presenting different types of construction. An exceptional group of lead vials has been discovered in place in over thirty graves.
In the north gallery, which gave access to the church, the ground was covered with tombstones that each covered several stacked graves. These tombstones, as well as others found in the embankments, can be discovered by visitors in a lapidary museum that SASSAG is beginning to develop in the enclosure of the abbey.
The east gallery of the cloister is completely intersected by an impressive wall made up of huge and perfectly cut blocks. These are the remains of the last reconstruction of the abbey, begun in 1760. With an exceptional workmanship, these walls overlap all the previous structures and complicate their legibility.
Suspended in 2020, excavations resumed in 2021 and clearing of the western sector, beyond the road laid out in the 1960s, began. Elevations were cleared. The lower half of several windows and a door surrounded by capitals with floral decoration appeared.
Below the refectory, a monastic garden has been created on a land not built of the monastery.
The visits will be complemented by presentations on the history of the Grandmont order and its imposing treasure that was scattered during the dissolution of the order, shortly before the Revolution. Despite the destruction, sales and thefts, this dispersion has finally allowed the conservation of many pieces that are still found in various churches of the diocese, in the Museum of Fine Arts of Limoges, in Paris and in other major art museums around the world.
Archaeological excavations: what are the problems?
These planned excavations, supported by the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, contribute to the training of archaeology students who have the opportunity, for five weeks each summer, to work with specialists from the many disciplines involved in medieval archaeology research. Together with SASSAG and the support of local authorities, they contribute to the development of the cultural site in interaction with its natural environment.
From a scientific point of view, the project aims to establish the different stages of the development of the Grandmont site by the monks. Was the site deserted or not when they arrived in 1125? What was the layout and appearance of their first constructions after their arrival? How many reconstructions took place at the time of the splendour of the abbey at the turn of the 13th century? What imprint did the Plantagenets have on the organization of a building where they frequently resided and where they had considered a time to be buried? Can we find the constructions associated with their stays that are mentioned in the chronicles? Were new works undertaken between the Middle Ages and the great reconstruction work of the eighteenth century? Until when did the monks continue to use the medieval buildings? What was the progress of the project at the time of the abandonment of the site in 1788?
These excavations also aim to reconstruct the footprint of the monastery’s great centre of power over the entire region. What arrangements were they able to make, thanks to their financial means and to the tenants over whom they exercised the seigneurial power, to an environment little favored by nature? How were organized on the ground their multiple economic activities, both in the «franchise», a territory of about 700 hectares on which the abbots and monks exercised a sovereign power, But also on the whole surrounding region where their feudal power competed with neighbouring powers, secular like the Dognon’s châtellenie or ecclesiastical like the bishopric of Limoges?