BENEDICTINE ABBEY

Founded around 875 by Benedictine monks from Touraine, the abbey of Charlieu is connected to Cluny circa 930 and then reduced to priory before 1040. Excavations made it possible to discover the foundations of three churches built on the same site in the th, th and th centuries. The latter remains only the last span, facade and narthex (porch) added in the early th century. Its great portal, whose decoration is inspired by the Book of Revelation, is a masterpiece of Romanesque art. The present cloister, from the end of the fifteenth century, opens onto the chapter room by a Romanesque colonnade. From here, you go to the Prieur chapel (late th). Two museums (stone and religious art) were also set up in the visiting hall and a former cellar. Through a monumental monumentale door, you enter the courtyard of the Hôtel du'du Prieur (early th). Housed in the former novices'dormitory, the Visitor Centre offers, besides a welcome and boutique space, an important museum area recreating, in a living way, this monastic universe for anyone who wants to "open the doors of time".