Lencloître - Notre-Dame

Robert of Arbrissel (aka "Robert d'Arbrissel") was a restless itinerant preacher and is still well remembered as the founder of the famous Abbey of Fontevrault. In 1106 he founded a priory here, dependend from the Abbey of Fontevrault. Nuns and patres lived together in one community, just like in Fontevrault. The priory must have had a nice cloister, as Lencloître, the name of the village, derives from the word "cloître".

Like most monasteries around, the priory got looted and burnt down during the Wars of Religions, but monastic life continued upto the French Revolution, when the last nuns left - and the remaining buildings were sold as national property.

The church of the priory survived the times and since 1805 serves as a parish church.

The Mass had ended and I had climbed up the stairs to the gallery. So I could be face to face with the wildlife up there. As the gallery was erected after medieval times, the lions were not seen from this angle in the 12th century. The soft, artistic style reminds a bit on to the workshop, who carved the capitals in Faye-la-Vineuse.