Valmagne Abbey

Valmagne Abbey (French: Abbaye de Valmagne) is a former monastery located near Villeveyrac, Hérault in south-central France and is a designated historic monument under the French listing system.

Valmagne Abbey was founded as a Benedictine abbey in 1138 but only twenty years later was attached to the Cistercian Order by decree of Pope Hadrian IV, where it remained until the French Revolution when monasteries in France were confiscated by the state and either sold or destroyed. Valmagne escaped demolition and was sold intact to a Monsieur Granier-Joyeuse in 1791 who converted the abbey church into a wine cave for the maturing of wine in large barrels, a function it continues to serve today.

Read more about Valmagne Abbey:  History, Vineyard, Gallery

Famous quotes containing the word abbey:

    The Abbey always reminds me of that old toast, “Above lofty timbers, the walls around are bare, echoing to our laughter, as though the dead were there.”
    Garrett Fort (1900–1945)