ABBAYE DE VALENCE

The history of this abbey in Valence is tormented. It was founded in 1230 by Hugues X de Lusignan and Cistercian monks lived there for five centuries. Its remarkable abbey church bears witness to the glorious past of this monastery before its long period of eclipse: it was first partly destroyed during the Wars of Religion in the 16th century, then rebuilt at the beginning of the following century, and sold to the State in 1791. Its ruins were razed in the 19th century, but some of these buildings, classified as historical monuments, were returned to the commune.