Ferrières Abbey
Encyclopedia
Ferrières Abbey was a Benedictine monastery situated at Ferrières-en-Gâtinais
in the arrondissement
of Montargis
, in the département of Loiret
, France
.
, dated 508) was founded in about 630
by Columba
, an Irish monk. The dedication was to Saints Peter and Paul. (According to Dom Mazoyer there was before then at Ferrières a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin under the title Notre-Dame de Bethleem de Ferrières).
It reached a height of prosperity in the time of the celebrated Lupus (Loup of Ferrières) (c. 850), when the abbey became quite an active literary centre, but the library was destroyed at the same time as the monastery, and only rare fragments survive. One of these, preserved at the Vatican
library (Reg.1573), recalls the memory of Saint Aldric (d. 836), Abbot of Ferrières before he became Archbishop of Sens.
The Carolingian kings Louis III
and his brother Carloman
held their joint coronation at the abbey in 879
, and were later buried there.http://perso.orange.fr/gatinais.histoire/images/photos/Frrrs_abbaye_inter.jpg It was restored in the 9th century by Louis the Pious
and Charles the Bald
.
Among the last names in the imperfect list of the abbots of Ferrières is that of Louis de Blanchefort, who in the 15th century almost entirely restored the abbey after it was burnt down by the English in the Hundred Years' War
. He was buried in its choir.
In 1568, the abbey was besieged by the troops of Louis de Condé
, Protestant friend of the Coligny family, pillaged and profaned and, although no monks were killed, the reliquaires and treasures of the abbey were dispersed, the tombs there of Louis III
, Carloman
and Louis de Blancheforthttp://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/oeuvres/richesses-28-9273-70399-P220856-175743.html heavily damaged and the monks' stalls removed. Odet de Coligny
(abroad by then, and abbot of the abbey until shortly beforehand) only intervened to stop this after three days when his own financial interests in the benefice seemed threatened. After suffering this and other severe damage during the Wars of Religion
, Ferrières was rebuilt in the 17th century by the prior Guillaume Morin, but then disappeared with all the ancient abbeys at the time of the French Revolution
, and its treasures and library were ruined and scattered.
At its height, the abbey occupied a vast enclosed estate with a great cloister (adjoining the monastic church to the south of its nave) and a little cloister (adjoining its choir). http://perso.orange.fr/gatinais.histoire/images/photos/Frrrs_portepapale.jpg
The abbey church is formed of a 12th century nave and 13th century transepts and choir. She must have been begun around 1150. On September 29, 1163, pope Alexander III
consecrated the nave whilst it was under construction. The volume of the nave was doubled by a unique second nave to its left, destroyed in 1739 by the collapse of the crossing tower - one can also sees the great arcades linking the two, whose bases (laid out today in bricks) alternated between one big column and two doubled smaller ones (as at the collegiate church of Champeaux
, at Saint-Martin de Champeaux; the doubling-up and the decoration betray the influence of Sens Cathedral). It seems there was no plan to vault the main nave, covered instead with a paneled framework. In the right wall, one notices the door (walled-up) that led into the great cloister. The windows, high up because of the cloister, are apparently contemporary with the transept and choir.
These were constructed in the first years of the 13th century. The crossing is formed by an octagonal rotonda. This very original plan was maybe imposed on the builders by the presence in this location of some foundations of a Carolingian building, sometimes identified with the choir of the church rebuilt on the orders of Aldaric, abbot from 821 to 828 - visible traces of this foundation include an arch of alternating stone and nated brick on the right rear of the rotonda. The central space is not covered by a cupola but by an arch of ribs radiating out to eight supports. Between the transept chapel and the choir is located a small room (formerly the sacristy and mortuary, where the bodies of dead monks were deposited for the day before funeral, before being placed in the choir for the funeral itself). Off the left transept opens a chapel of the 14th century, perhaps replacing a chapel similar to that off the right transept.
The choir is covered with a sexpartite (six-part) arch (a 13th century type particular to Champagne and Burgundy). Its lateral walls present traces of an 11th century phase of construction. In the choir is the tomb of Louis de Blanchefort.
The crossing carried a tower called a "lead steeple" (visible on the engraving of the "Monastecon gallicanum"), decorated with eight 2.5m high lead statues and the arms of Louis XIII
and the prince of Condé
, but destroyed in 1739. The tower steeple, to the left, is very ancient at its base; the floors were remade to in the 13th century; the arrow, at the end of the 15ht.
The tympanum
of the earlier door of the central nave, today in the open air, was decorated with a scene of Christ in majesty, with (some believe) Christ as a portrait of Clovis I
. In the earlier door of the secondary nave was a capital representing a fight between Pepin the Short and a lion.
The glass-windows of the apse date back to the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, ordered by Louis of Blancafort or his successor Pierre de Martigny (1518-1527).
Besides the monastic church (12th and 13th centuries), the Notre-Dame de Bethléem chapel (to the west of the monastic church), in which is a retable
of 1650 by Gilles Guérin
, and parts of the convent were preserved, all largely dating to Louis de Blanchefort's 15th century rebuild.
Ferrières-en-Gâtinais
Ferrières-en-Gâtinais is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France.-See also:*Communes of the Loiret department...
in the arrondissement
Arrondissement
Arrondissement is any of various administrative divisions of France, certain other Francophone countries, and the Netherlands.-France:The 101 French departments are divided into 342 arrondissements, which may be translated into English as districts. The capital of an arrondissement is called a...
of Montargis
Montargis
Montargis is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. The town is located about south of Paris and east of Orléans in the Gâtinais....
, in the département of Loiret
Loiret
Loiret is a department in north-central FranceThe department is named after the river Loiret, a tributary of the Loire. The Loiret is located wholly within the department.- History :...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
History
Represented in the famous Monasticon gallicanum, it seems clear that the abbey (despite a tradition based on the Acts of Saint Savinian and a forged charter of Clovis IClovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...
, dated 508) was founded in about 630
630
Year 630 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 630 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Byzantine Empire :* Croats and Serbs settle in the...
by Columba
Columba
Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...
, an Irish monk. The dedication was to Saints Peter and Paul. (According to Dom Mazoyer there was before then at Ferrières a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin under the title Notre-Dame de Bethleem de Ferrières).
It reached a height of prosperity in the time of the celebrated Lupus (Loup of Ferrières) (c. 850), when the abbey became quite an active literary centre, but the library was destroyed at the same time as the monastery, and only rare fragments survive. One of these, preserved at the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
library (Reg.1573), recalls the memory of Saint Aldric (d. 836), Abbot of Ferrières before he became Archbishop of Sens.
The Carolingian kings Louis III
Louis III of France
Louis III was the King of France, still then called West Francia, from 879 until his death. The second son of Louis the Stammerer and his first wife, Ansgarde, he succeeded his father to reign jointly with his younger brother Carloman II, who became sole ruler on Louis's death...
and his brother Carloman
Carloman of France
Carloman II , King of Western Francia, was the youngest son of King Louis the Stammerer and Ansgarde of Burgundy, and became king, jointly with his brother Louis III of France, on his father's death in 879....
held their joint coronation at the abbey in 879
879
Year 879 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia as an independent state....
, and were later buried there.http://perso.orange.fr/gatinais.histoire/images/photos/Frrrs_abbaye_inter.jpg It was restored in the 9th century by Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
and Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
.
Among the last names in the imperfect list of the abbots of Ferrières is that of Louis de Blanchefort, who in the 15th century almost entirely restored the abbey after it was burnt down by the English in the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
. He was buried in its choir.
In 1568, the abbey was besieged by the troops of Louis de Condé
Prince of Condé
The Most Serene House of Condé is a historical French house, a noble lineage of descent from a single ancestor...
, Protestant friend of the Coligny family, pillaged and profaned and, although no monks were killed, the reliquaires and treasures of the abbey were dispersed, the tombs there of Louis III
Louis III of France
Louis III was the King of France, still then called West Francia, from 879 until his death. The second son of Louis the Stammerer and his first wife, Ansgarde, he succeeded his father to reign jointly with his younger brother Carloman II, who became sole ruler on Louis's death...
, Carloman
Carloman of France
Carloman II , King of Western Francia, was the youngest son of King Louis the Stammerer and Ansgarde of Burgundy, and became king, jointly with his brother Louis III of France, on his father's death in 879....
and Louis de Blancheforthttp://www.patrimoine-de-france.org/oeuvres/richesses-28-9273-70399-P220856-175743.html heavily damaged and the monks' stalls removed. Odet de Coligny
Odet de Coligny
Odet de Coligny was a French cardinal of Châtillon, bishop of Beauvais, son of Gaspard I de Coligny and Louise de Montmorency, and brother of Gaspard and François, Seigneur d'Andelot.-Birth:...
(abroad by then, and abbot of the abbey until shortly beforehand) only intervened to stop this after three days when his own financial interests in the benefice seemed threatened. After suffering this and other severe damage during the Wars of Religion
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants . The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise...
, Ferrières was rebuilt in the 17th century by the prior Guillaume Morin, but then disappeared with all the ancient abbeys at the time of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, and its treasures and library were ruined and scattered.
Buildings
Today only some ruins of the ancient monastic buildings are to be seen.At its height, the abbey occupied a vast enclosed estate with a great cloister (adjoining the monastic church to the south of its nave) and a little cloister (adjoining its choir). http://perso.orange.fr/gatinais.histoire/images/photos/Frrrs_portepapale.jpg
The abbey church is formed of a 12th century nave and 13th century transepts and choir. She must have been begun around 1150. On September 29, 1163, pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III , born Rolando of Siena, was Pope from 1159 to 1181. He is noted in history for laying the foundation stone for the Notre Dame de Paris.-Church career:...
consecrated the nave whilst it was under construction. The volume of the nave was doubled by a unique second nave to its left, destroyed in 1739 by the collapse of the crossing tower - one can also sees the great arcades linking the two, whose bases (laid out today in bricks) alternated between one big column and two doubled smaller ones (as at the collegiate church of Champeaux
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne is a French department, named after the Seine and Marne rivers, and located in the Île-de-France region.- History:Seine-et-Marne is one of the original 83 departments, created on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution in application of the law of December 22, 1789...
, at Saint-Martin de Champeaux; the doubling-up and the decoration betray the influence of Sens Cathedral). It seems there was no plan to vault the main nave, covered instead with a paneled framework. In the right wall, one notices the door (walled-up) that led into the great cloister. The windows, high up because of the cloister, are apparently contemporary with the transept and choir.
These were constructed in the first years of the 13th century. The crossing is formed by an octagonal rotonda. This very original plan was maybe imposed on the builders by the presence in this location of some foundations of a Carolingian building, sometimes identified with the choir of the church rebuilt on the orders of Aldaric, abbot from 821 to 828 - visible traces of this foundation include an arch of alternating stone and nated brick on the right rear of the rotonda. The central space is not covered by a cupola but by an arch of ribs radiating out to eight supports. Between the transept chapel and the choir is located a small room (formerly the sacristy and mortuary, where the bodies of dead monks were deposited for the day before funeral, before being placed in the choir for the funeral itself). Off the left transept opens a chapel of the 14th century, perhaps replacing a chapel similar to that off the right transept.
The choir is covered with a sexpartite (six-part) arch (a 13th century type particular to Champagne and Burgundy). Its lateral walls present traces of an 11th century phase of construction. In the choir is the tomb of Louis de Blanchefort.
The crossing carried a tower called a "lead steeple" (visible on the engraving of the "Monastecon gallicanum"), decorated with eight 2.5m high lead statues and the arms of Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
and the prince of Condé
Prince of Condé
The Most Serene House of Condé is a historical French house, a noble lineage of descent from a single ancestor...
, but destroyed in 1739. The tower steeple, to the left, is very ancient at its base; the floors were remade to in the 13th century; the arrow, at the end of the 15ht.
The tympanum
Tympanum (architecture)
In architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Most architectural styles include this element....
of the earlier door of the central nave, today in the open air, was decorated with a scene of Christ in majesty, with (some believe) Christ as a portrait of Clovis I
Clovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...
. In the earlier door of the secondary nave was a capital representing a fight between Pepin the Short and a lion.
The glass-windows of the apse date back to the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, ordered by Louis of Blancafort or his successor Pierre de Martigny (1518-1527).
Besides the monastic church (12th and 13th centuries), the Notre-Dame de Bethléem chapel (to the west of the monastic church), in which is a retable
Retable
A retable is a framed altarpiece, raised slightly above the back of the altar or communion table, on which are placed the cross, ceremonial candlesticks and other ornaments....
of 1650 by Gilles Guérin
Gilles Guérin
Gilles Guérin was a French sculptor of the second rank, providing tomb sculptures and decorative sculptures in interiors, in the Baroque idiom.-Notable works:...
, and parts of the convent were preserved, all largely dating to Louis de Blanchefort's 15th century rebuild.
List of abbots
- Loup (Lupus) of Ferrières (c. 850)
- Saint AldricSaint AldricSaint Aldric was Bishop of Le Mans in the time of Louis the Pious, born c. 800; died at Le Mans, 7 January, 856. As a youth he lived in the court of Charlemagne, at Aix la Chapelle, as well as in that of his son and successor Louis....
821 to 828, Abbot before he became Archbishop of SensSensSens is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.Sens is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is crossed by the Yonne and the Vanne, which empties into the Yonne here.-History:... - Louis de Blanchefort, 1465 to 1507
- Pierre de Martigny, 1518-1527 (Blanchefort's successor)
- Odet de ColignyOdet de ColignyOdet de Coligny was a French cardinal of Châtillon, bishop of Beauvais, son of Gaspard I de Coligny and Louise de Montmorency, and brother of Gaspard and François, Seigneur d'Andelot.-Birth:...
, 1556 - 1563