Le Thoronet Abbey

The Abbaye du Thoronet is a former Cistercian monastery and is located 4.5 km west of Le Thoronet, a small village in the hinterland of the Var region, north of Le Luc, between Carcès and Lorgues, near the River Argens. The Abbaye du Thoronet forms with Sénanque and Silvacane the group of famous Cistercian monasteries of Provence, called the "three Provencal Sisters".

History

1136 left a group of Cistercian monks Abbey in Ardèche Mazan and erected near Tour Tour the sanctuary of Notre -Dame-de - Florièges. Even 15 years later the brothers left the local temporary buildings and were about 20 miles away at its present location near Lorgues in a secluded, wooded valley on a small river down. 1160 has started with the construction of the church, the - was the Mother of God ordained - as usual with the Cistercians. 15 years later the main building were completed. 1190 was the last work to be completed.

Foundations and donations helped the monastery to a rapid recovery. At the beginning of the 13th century there were about 20 monks and a few dozen lay brothers in the abbey. Even in the 15th century they built a new refectory, but a short time later, the decline began. Different sources give testimony that as a result of the end of the 17th century abbey building were in a precarious condition. In the 18th century, significant changes were made. Thus, the church received a stucco decoration, which significantly altered the original impression.

1790, at the beginning of the French Revolution, lived just seven monks in the abbey, which was disbanded in the course of secularization. 1854 was acquired by the French State, the abbey. Since 1873, through the efforts to restore the building. In this case, all subsequent installations and conversions were removed and obtain the original state for posterity.

Architecture

In all parts of the building a strict and very geometric Romanesque style prevails. The basilica construction of the nave and the transept are clearly visible from the outside. It lacks any jewelry in the shape of arch friezes or pilasters. In the simple entrance facade open instead of a main portal two small side doors with round arches. On the south wall of the church one of the rare grave arched niches of Provence can be seen, which is carved from the outside into the wall. Exceptional is the tower: the emphasis on simplicity is omitted in Cistercian churches generally it. Most abbey churches have only a small roof skylights.

Inside, the wide nave, flanked by significantly narrower aisles, formed by three yokes. Although the nave has no clerestory, the church is bright The choir runs in an apse with overlying half- dome. The three windows symbolize the divine Trinity. Right and left of the main apse one encounters two side chapels. These have no square ground plan, but a round conclusion, in contrast to most of the Cistercian churches. From the outside, however, the usual impression is maintained by a straight final masonry.

The transept is lower and narrower than the nave. Thus, a crossing in the real sense is absent; the barrel vault of the nave extends to the wall of the choir. Interesting are the pillars of the nave, which form a plane with the arcade wall and so reminiscent of Roman aqueducts. Inside today lack the originally existing rood screen which separated the areas of priestly monks and lay brothers greatly.

Even within the church lacks almost any bauplastischer jewelry and so underlines the aspiration of the Cistercian after a simplicity, focusing on the essentials, worship and prayer, concentrated. The acoustics in the church is exceptionally good.

Not only in the church, also in almost all other buildings of the abbey from the dormitory to the basement, there are almost exclusively barrel vault. One of the few exceptions are the ribbed vault in the chapter house. Here the monks found a every morning to listen to a chapter from the Rule of Hl.Benedikt and discuss important issues. As the only room he is already influenced by the Gothic. The pointed arches resting on two central pillars, whose capitals with double row water leaves, pine cones, palms and a crosier holding hand decorated. The lowest ribs stones are knocked out of a block in a complex technology.

Behind the chapter house you find a simple passage to the garden. He served as Parlarium - next to the chapter house, the only room where the monks were allowed to talk to each other. Just north bordering a staircase led up to the dormitory. Under each window opening slept a monk; the beds are still indicated by stone slabs.

The monastery buildings are grouped around the ( terrain permitting) trapezoidal cloister. He is different from the standard north of the church, is unusually large rather plain, but with an edge length of 37m. The thickness of the walls with arches and double arcades, the simple oculus, which breaks through its eaves, the capitals, where no ornament of the clear line deflects invite you to engage their senses.

The south wing of the cloister was probably built approximately the same time as the Abbey Church; he is like this is arched by a cylindrical bin, the other three wings, however, already with a conical buoy. The transverse arches which support the arches, resting on block-like consoles. In the northeast and northwest corner you can find, however, cross-ribbed vault, which suggests a later creation of these parts of the building.

The well-house, from which the monks drew their drinking and washing water, is located opposite the door of the refectory in a hexagonal pavilion with a dome. The inner edges are obscured by six square pointed arches. In the middle there is a dish with 16 openings from which the water flows into the larger, lower basin. In the well house wall opposite the entrances to the refectory, kitchen and heating room can still be seen, which unfortunately is only in their foundations.

In the pantry, the monks prepared the wine and the olive oil, the main sources of income of the abbey. Even today there are wine vats from the 18th century You facing an oil press. In the barrel vault of the pantry can be seen ventilation chimneys that were necessary to avoid the accumulation of alcohol vapors.

The north subsequent building of the lay brothers (as in all Cistercian monasteries the areas of monks and lay brothers were separated from each other not only in the abbey church, but also in other life ), which also houses the portal porch is contained a three-pile ground floor dining room and a dormitory on the 1st floor. On the north wall of this room you come across a door that led to the latrines ( located directly above the passing stream ).

The cemetery of the Abbey is located in the east behind the choir of the church. The strict poverty commandment of the Order had the effect that the dead were laid only in a white towel without a coffin and grave stone directly into the earth.

Assessment

The art historian Wolfgang Braunfels describes this architecture of the stone as follows: "Stone always seems more durable than wood or plaster, strict and solid at the same time. One gets the impression that in these alignments vault the monks have included in the long run. Here you can dislocate anything. This is also Dungeons and paradise. In the stone world unfolded that the Cistercian aesthetics, which led to Gothic. Where color and character was banned, urged the new stone treatment to completion. Simplicity and geometric clarity of form is collected at the Ideal. " ()

The French architect Fernand Pouillon has described the architectural history of the Abbey from the ( fictional) view of the architect William Balz in his novel "Singing Stones" (in French Les pierres sauvages ). Our own studies on this structure are based on his work.