Sablonceaux Abbey

The ruins of the abbey Sablonceaux located approximately 20 kilometers west of Saintes, outside of the eponymous French village between the towns of Nancras and Saujon in the Poitou-Charentes region in the department of Charente -Maritime.

History

William X, Duke of Aquitaine, the abbey Sablonceaux founded in 1136 as an Augustinian Canons. Through donations of the English royal house of Anjou - Plantagenet and influential families from the area of the Charente, the abbey came to great wealth. It benefited in its heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries by the streams of pilgrims on a not far past leading from the Abbey of St. James to Santiago de Compostela.

Least by arson of the Huguenots - - In the times of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) and the Wars of Religion in the 16th century, the buildings of the abbey were housed in large parts to collapse and severely damaged.

Specifications

The abbey church is a single-aisled domed church with a transept and a square choir. The western bay of the nave and the narthex are completely destroyed, the second yoke still has remnants of the side walls and connecting parts of a dome on top. The eastern yoke is closed to the West with a temporary wall. The slender Gothic bell tower, in the corner between the choir and the southern transept, and with him the whole eastern facade of the Abbey is, however, quite well preserved.

Architectural History

The abbey church Notre -Dame dates back in substantial parts of the 12th century. The transept and three bays of the former ship were originally surmounted by circular domes that were connected by squinches ( pendentives ) the square plan. Domed churches are a typical element of Aquitaine Romanesque. About 60 such domed churches have been preserved. The ship was on the whole, about 60 meters long, the transept 30 meters wide. The choir is the oldest gothic component of the system. It was probably added in the 13th century. In 1791, the monastery buildings were declared with the exception of the Church of the folklore and sold for demolition to the population. To obtain a closed church, they moved in 1830 to the west, before the resulting domes, a temporary wall, which still forms the conclusion of the sacred space today.

The rescue of the remains of the abbey buildings, which were used in the meantime agricultural, came from the Bishop of La Rochelle, who acquired the ruins in 1986. After extensive restoration and renovation work, the old buildings are used again by Catholic communities with ecumenical appeal.

Gothic wall pattern

In addition to building with Romanesque windows

Belfry

Chapel of the Bell Tower

Dome over the crossing and choir

Other monastic buildings

On the northern side of the building, you can sense the original elements of the cloister and its periphery. The surrounding components are at least three pages still exist, such as the chapter house with its Romanesque window and door group and above the dormitory. The chapter house itself has no Romanesque vaulting more, but only a flat floor slab at younger transverse arches and a center support.